No subject

[Joan Houston Hall]

Volume IV of DARE will show that it's found chiefly in the South and South
Midland, but there's also some evidence from the Southwest.  'Tisn't
"wrong" at all--just a nice regionalism.

At 02:01 PM 3/14/02 -0500, you wrote:
>My friend and I have a question regarding the proper usage of
>"out-of-pocket."  I say it relates to either "requiring an outlay of
>cash" or "having little or no money."
>
>My partner uses the term with reference to not being available by phone
>or otherwise.  He will tell people that he could not contact them or
>that they could not contact him because he was "out-of-pocket" for a
>while (i,e - he was in California and incommunicado).  He says it is
>West Coast slang (he is from the West and I am from the East), but I
>just think that it' is the wrong usage.
>
>Can anybody help us settle this matter?
>
>Mark Lechter
>NYC