Talk:Out-of-pocket expenses
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of the Business and Economics WikiProject. | |
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the assessment scale. | |
| ??? | This article has not yet received an importance rating on the assessment scale. | |
[edit] Additional Meaning of out of pocket.
This phrase is commonly used in the finance and business industries to mean "unavailable" or "unreachable". For instance, if I am about to get on a plane to China I might comment to my boss: "I'll be out of pocket for the next 15 hours but I'll be back on my blackberry after that." Its possible that this usage is erronius but it certainly is common. Here are to links that mention the usage I'm talking about:
http://www.word-detective.com/012000.html
I'm especially apprehensive about answering your question because I'm afraid that your brother's case is very strong. "Out of pocket" is indeed usually used as a sort of shorthand for "paying out of one's own pocket that which should (and usually ultimately will) be paid by someone else." Interestingly, the original sense of "out of pocket" when it first appeared around 1693 was not so hopeful. It meant to be either "broke" or "the loser in a financial transaction."
However, and here's where your case gains strength, around 1974 "out of pocket" also started being used to mean "out of touch" or "unavailable." No one seems to know exactly why this sense arose or what the "pocket" in this case might be. Personally, I suspect that it's a bad translation of some French phrase. In any case, this sense of "out of pocket" is not, as far as I can tell, widely used. A more common phrase meaning the same thing is "out of the loop," which first appeared around 1983 and is probably rooted in computer terminology.
But the bottom line is that you're both right, although your brother is a bit more likely to be clearly understood when he uses "out of pocket."
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/23717 Why are people said to be "out of pocket" when they are travelling (especially business travel)?
This is from Random House, the dictionary publisher...... The phrase out of pocket also means 'out of place; out of order', and often describes unacceptable behavior or situations. This meaning has its roots in Black English of the 1940s, and refers to the pockets on a pool table. An example from a recent edition of The Los Angeles Times: "Any outsider who would attempt to engage in that conversation would be out of pocket."
Whitewalt 17:01, 15 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Doesn't belong in an encyclopaedia
Out of pocket is a phrase with a meaning rather than a topic with a number of facets, and an article on it is appropriate for a dictionary, but not an encyclopaedia. Does anyone disagree? Pol098 (talk) 14:39, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
