Friends and colleagues are using this expression: "out of pocket" when they will be away from their computers.  How did this start and what is its origin?

Espanolauna

Welcome, espanolauna!

It sounds like you may be saying that people have used this expression, "out of pocket", to mean that they will be unavailable… Is this what you’re saying?

If that is the intended meaning, I’m not sure I’ve heard it used that way before.  It could be a ‘local’ usage… something the folks in your office came up with on their own.

-Tim

Welcome, espanolauna!

Friends and colleagues are using this expression: "out of pocket" when they will be away from their computers.

I’ve never heard ‘out of pocket’ used like that before!

Perhaps it started with your friends and colleagues!

Sitran

I’ve heard this expression used most often by a person  about someone else  having carried out a task but finishing up by it having cost them money as well as time - for example "it was good of Willie to run the old folk to their Christmas dinner, but we should give him the money for petrol, we don’t want him being out-of-pocket for doing it".

Never heard of it used in your sense though Espanalauna, but then computer people tend to have their own ways with language!
(I once heard someone say in a computer factory "this machine has been powered down by human intervention" The rest of us would’ve said "somebody’s switched it off!"

Welcome, espanolauna!

I also have occasionally heard and seen "I’ll be out of pocket" used in the sense of "I’ll be out of the office" or "away from my computer" or unavailable. This usage seems to be far less common than the sense of "out of pocket" (or "out-of-pocket") expenditures or costs, meaning expenditures paid "out of one’s own pocket" which may or may not be reimbursable.

I was curious, so I did a web search and found this link where the author indicates that usage originated in a confusion between "out of pocket" and "out of the loop." I also found a few other citations, such as this one in The Phrase Finder and this one citing a Dictionary of American Regional English entry that dates the usage back to 1967.

I’ve heard this expression all my life and am astonished that hardly anyone else is familiar with it! Perhaps it’s a regional thing? I grew up in Texas and lived in Colorado for 12 years.

Here’s my purely speculative take on its possible origin. To be "out-of-pocket" is to be someplace other than your usual location—somplace where people can’t readily locate you, someplace where they can’t readily "put their hands on you," to use another idiom.

No connection at all to out-of-pocket expenses.

Again, this is all pure speculation on my part.

penny

Thanks, Penny!  Welcome!

Don’t be out of pocket too often!

Sitran

[quote author=Penny link=board=idiom;num=1072808753;start=0#6 date=01/04/04 at 09:51:08]I’ve heard this expression all my life and am astonished that hardly anyone else is familiar with it! Perhaps it’s a regional thing? I grew up in Texas and lived in Colorado for 12 years.

Well, Penny, I’ve heard it used in Tennessee all of my life as well, so it must be a big region.  I agree with your idea as to the origin.  I tend to be out-of-pocket quite a bit myself (which is why my postings here tend to come in spurts - I’ll never catch up to Katy at this rate ).

Having grown up in England, I’d never heard any usage other than the financial one till I read this thread.

I wonder if the extended usage might have been influenced by the NFL, where a quarterback is out of the pocket when he goes outside of his ‘normal’ area of operation.

Ed