Timeline for When traveling abroad, are you "oversea" or "overseas"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
8 events
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| Feb 1, 2011 at 17:59 | comment | added | PLL | @Jonathan, @Sky: see my comment on Jon Purdy’s answer — from the OED, it seems that oversea was indeed a common equivalent in UK usage until around the ’50s, but that since then (as we Brits have all been reporting), overseas has replaced it in UK usage as well. So M-W is a little out-of-date. | |
| Feb 1, 2011 at 8:40 | comment | added | Sky Red | @afriza: As for your situation, each time you left Singapore, you would be going overseas.Having said that, I don't think many Singaporeans would consider themselves as being overseas if they crossed over to neighbouring Malaysia or the nearby Indonesian islands of Bintan and Batam. Instead they might say, "I'm out of the country." Just wondering whether proximity has anything to do with the usage of overseas. | |
| Feb 1, 2011 at 8:27 | comment | added | Sky Red | @afriza: I really don't know, and I haven't found anything authoritative on this point. | |
| Feb 1, 2011 at 7:59 | comment | added | Jonathan Leffler | @afriza: from the UK, we tend to regard anything in England, Scotland or Wales as 'not overseas' and anything else as 'overseas'. One of the merits of being a (smallish) island is that you do go 'overseas' to most other countries. | |
| Feb 1, 2011 at 7:55 | comment | added | Sky Red | @Jonathan Leffler: No, M-W doesn't mention its passing, in fact, reading the entry, i get the impression 'oversea' is very much alive and well; it is not referred to as archaic etc. But I think we would all agree that overseas is more commonly used, regardless of which part of the world we came from. And, yes, I did regard oversea as erroneous, too. | |
| Feb 1, 2011 at 7:54 | comment | added | Afriza N. Arief | I agree with your remark. Does overseas apply if I travel abroad without crossing any sea nor water? | |
| Feb 1, 2011 at 7:39 | comment | added | Jonathan Leffler | Does M-W list when 'oversea' was last used in Britain? I don't recall ever seeing it, and would have regarded it as erroneous if I had, regardless of what M-W said about its historical usage. | |
| Feb 1, 2011 at 5:18 | history | answered | Sky Red | CC BY-SA 2.5 |