Try saying “next week I’m going outstation” to a Londoner and they might start wondering what you would be doing outside the station for a week!
The word “outstation” itself is a colonial relic left by the British and cannot be found in any of the major contemporary dictionaries such as Oxford, MacMillan, Cambridge or Longman.
So how can we rephrase “outstation” to make it more international?
You could use “out of town”, “out of the office”, or simply “I’ll be away next week”. Or, you could just say where you are going!
*Sigh* I have prioritized the English language my whole life and these terms would bother me so much that it literally create a minor migraine.
ReplyDeleteFor example, "bunting" means vertical banner in Malaysia Advertising Industry but it meant something entirely different.