Out of Pocket

[Marc Velasco]

Aside from DARE, OED originations, 'Out of pocket' was also popularized
recently (if popularized is the right term) by the obscure tv series  'The
Wire.'

seen here: (not teleplays, but just write-ups)
http://www.hbo.com/thewire/episode/season3/episode33.shtml
http://www.hbo.com/thewire/episode/season4/episode47.shtml

While both of the above cites are crook-to-crook, my memory serves up only
cop-to-cop examples.  Typically it meant, out of our immediate
possession/control, also unreachable.

**

on "in the wind," here's a cite (also from 'The Wire'):
http://www.siliconvalleyfrogs.com/thewire/ep19.html

BAILIFF: Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth, so help you God?
OMAR: I surely do.
NATHAN: State your name for the record.
OMAR: Omar Devon Little.
NATHAN: Mr. Little, how old are you?
OMAR: About 29, thereabout.
NATHAN: And where you live?
OMAR: No place in particular, ma'am.
NATHAN: You're homeless?
OMAR: In the wind, so to speak.
...


> Is this general to LA, California, or detectives?

Or to cop-show writers, detective writers?  Hard to say.




On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 2:27 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Out of Pocket
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 1:52 PM -0400 10/24/08, David Metevia wrote:
> >I usually associate this phrase with expenses, specifically health care
> >expenses not covered by insurance.  However, I hear both work colleagues
> >and friends & family use the term to describe people who are unavailable
> >(under the weather, out sick, or just incommunicado).  This sounds
> >strange to me.
> >
> --to me too. I only know the 'not covered by insurance' sense.   But
> this reminds me of a semantically related expression I had meant to
> ask about.  In two different series, detectives working for the LAPD
> refer to those people--suspects, witnesses, potential victims,
> whatever--who have intentionally made themselves hard to find (not
> necessarily on the lam) as being "in the wind" (in Michael Connelly
> novels) or "in the air" (in Jonathan Kellerman novels).  "Rabbiting"
> is also used for this activity, which I think I've seen elsewhere,
> but I only know "in the wind/air" from these two sources.  Is this
> general to LA, California, or detectives?  Is there an isogloss that
> cuts through the LAPD detective squad distinguishing the two
> expressions, or are they in free idiosyncratic variation?  Inquiring
> minds--well, this one, anyway--want to know.
>
> LH
>
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