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EmmettRedd said (in another thread):
I"ll be out-of-pocket for a couple of days, but I would be interested in....
Ok, I gotta ask. I first heard this term out of pocket to mean "away" or "out of the office" about ten years ago. When I challenged the person who used it, I said that "out of pocket" is an insurance term meaning the part of the charge that the insured has to pay, the deductible in other words; she meant "out of the office". She insisted that the term was correct as she had used it. I don't have much regard for her language skills so I've never been convinced, but I have seen it occasionally since.
But Emmett...you? What am I missing? Where did this abomination come from? Or if it's not an abomination, how is it not?
Bob Bridges said:
EmmettRedd said (in another thread):
I"ll be out-of-pocket for a couple of days, but I would be interested in....
Ok, I gotta ask. I first heard this term out of pocket to mean "away" or "out of the office" about ten years ago. When I challenged the person who used it, I said that "out of pocket" is an insurance term meaning the part of the charge that the insured has to pay, the deductible in other words; she meant "out of the office". She insisted that the term was correct as she had used it. I don't have much regard for her language skills so I've never been convinced, but I have seen it occasionally since.
But Emmett...you? What am I missing? Where did this abomination come from? Or if it's not an abomination, how is it not?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it has been around for over 100 years:
c. U.S. out of pocket: out of reach, absent, unavailable.1908 ‘O. Henry' Buried Treasure in Ainslee"s July 69/2 Just now she is out of pocket. And I shall find her as soon as I can.
1946 Sunday Times-Signal (Zanesville, Ohio) 12 May i. 7/1 [They] told citizens here that somebody was ‘out of pocket' in Bowie and Miller counties the nights of the killings, and urged them to recall whether anyone they knew was missing on those dates.
1973 J. Peterson Sicilian Slaughter 53 Her hands shook as she dialed. But her connection was out of pocket.
1974 Anderson (S. Carolina) Independent 20 Apr. 1 a/1 If you‥have ever been sick and the only doctor is out of pocket for the weekend, then you know we need more doctors.
2002 A. Phillips Prague iii. viii. 229 Five-day weekend for me, Charlie, starting in eighteen minutes. I"ll be out of pocket until Tuesday.
BTW, don"t take my interest in words and learning more about them or liking to discuss them as erasure my Ozarkian upbringing which might crop out in "abominations" to more proper English.
Emmett
P.S. In the other post/thread was supposed to be a link to Google"s ngram viewer. You can search to your heart"s content for the present "abomination" there as well as the (fight, compete) (with, against, alongside).
Martha Barnette
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