Timeline for What's up with the expression "to reach out"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| Feb 21, 2018 at 22:56 | comment | added | Hot Licks | More likely influenced by the song "Reach Out (I'll Be There)". It's hard to top the Four Tops. Except that Diana Ross may have done it with "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". | |
| Feb 21, 2018 at 21:54 | history | edited | nohat | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 21, 2018 at 21:25 | comment | added | nohat | @StephenPhillips I'm not sure I get any of the evangelical connotations you express from "reaching out". It seems like a pretty neutral application of the "communication is physical contact" metaphor. Before you can "touch someone" you first have to "reach out" away from your body, so "reaching out" is attempting to communicate with someone. You may have had experience with proselytism that makes extensive use of this metaphor, so maybe that is why you have those associations with it, but I don't think there is anything about recruitment or conversion inherent to the metaphor. | |
| Feb 21, 2018 at 20:06 | comment | added | user282885 | "It's pretty standard, bland business-ese, not sure it's worth peeving over." I admit the expression is a pet peeve of mine. But that's beside the point. It bothers me because it conveys a meaning that's quite different from what's intended. There's a jolting intimacy to it, rather like being greeted by a perfect stranger with a full-on bear hug instead of a simple handshake. Yes, it's a pervasive part of business-ese today so why mention it? But surely this is precisely the forum in which to raise it. BTW, I recall that AT&T ad. Not sure it had such an impact on the language, though! | |
| Feb 21, 2018 at 19:46 | history | answered | nohat | CC BY-SA 3.0 |