hoisting / lifting 06:25 Dec 29, 2011
There is a difference, at least an intuitive one, which may or may not be important, depending on context. Although you don't give us your actual source text, my guess is that if they are making a distinction between them, then yes, it may be important!
'hoisting' generally implies 'lifting from above' — except, perhaps, when used reflexively, e.g. "Yoda hoisted himself with difficulty onto the high stool".
"Lifting" can be from below or above; so 'hoist' might be seen as a subset of all types of 'lifting'.
Although we may lift a car off the ground using something called a car hoist, we might also lift it up by using a jack from below, though we will take the engine out using a chain hoist.
I think in terms of 'feeling', 'hoist' often implies something to do with the effort involved, whereas lift is totally neutral in that respect: one might lift a stone to see if there is something underneath it, thiough 'hoist' would usually sound odd here, unless the stone was so big that it was necessary to use mechanical means to hoist it up. | 
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +3
