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I was born in the United States and raised there in the 1980s. I moved to Israel a couple of years ago and work in a primarily English-speaking corporate office. It has, as you might expect, many meetings. Around the office, I frequently hear the verb sit used as a synonym for have a meeting. For example,

Can we sit in fifteen minutes,

Would you like to sit on it (meaning have a meeting about it; 'it' the topic under discussion), and

I'm sitting with him later.

I've never heard this in the States, as far as I recall. I know that it works in Hebrew (the local language here): thea common standard word for meeting is, etymologically speaking, a "sitting", and people use the verb for sit to mean have a meeting. My question is whether this Hebrew usage has spilled over into our office's English as sort of calque or whether, on the other hand, this is now English even outside of Israel.

I was born in the United States and raised there in the 1980s. I moved to Israel a couple of years ago and work in a primarily English-speaking corporate office. It has, as you might expect, many meetings. Around the office, I frequently hear the verb sit used as a synonym for have a meeting. For example,

Can we sit in fifteen minutes,

Would you like to sit on it (meaning have a meeting about it; 'it' the topic under discussion), and

I'm sitting with him later.

I've never heard this in the States, as far as I recall. I know that it works in Hebrew (the local language here): the word for meeting is, etymologically speaking, a "sitting", and people use the verb for sit to mean have a meeting. My question is whether this Hebrew usage has spilled over into our office's English as sort of calque or whether, on the other hand, this is now English even outside of Israel.

I was born in the United States and raised there in the 1980s. I moved to Israel a couple of years ago and work in a primarily English-speaking corporate office. It has, as you might expect, many meetings. Around the office, I frequently hear the verb sit used as a synonym for have a meeting. For example,

Can we sit in fifteen minutes,

Would you like to sit on it (meaning have a meeting about it; 'it' the topic under discussion), and

I'm sitting with him later.

I've never heard this in the States, as far as I recall. I know that it works in Hebrew (the local language here): a common standard word for meeting is, etymologically speaking, a "sitting", and people use the verb for sit to mean have a meeting. My question is whether this Hebrew usage has spilled over into our office's English as sort of calque or whether, on the other hand, this is now English even outside of Israel.

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Edwin Ashworth
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I was born in the United States and raised there in the 1980s. I moved to Israel a couple of years ago and work in a primarily English-speaking corporate office. It has, as you might expect, many meetings. Around the office, I frequently hear the verb sit used as a synonym for have a meeting. For example,

Can we sit in fifteen minutes,

Would you like to sit on it (meaning abouthave a meeting about it =; 'it' the topic under discussion), and

I'm sitting with him later.

I've never heard this in the States, as far as I recall. I know that it works in Hebrew (the local language here): the word for meeting is, etymologically speaking, a "sitting", and people use the verb for sit to mean have a meeting. My question is whether this Hebrew usage has spilled over into our office's English as sort of calque or whether, on the other hand, this is now English even outside of Israel.

I was born in the United States and raised there in the 1980s. I moved to Israel a couple of years ago and work in a primarily English-speaking corporate office. It has, as you might expect, many meetings. Around the office, I frequently hear the verb sit used as a synonym for have a meeting. For example,

Can we sit in fifteen minutes,

Would you like to sit on it (meaning about it = the topic under discussion), and

I'm sitting with him later.

I've never heard this in the States, as far as I recall. I know that it works in Hebrew (the local language here): the word for meeting is, etymologically speaking, a "sitting", and people use the verb for sit to mean have a meeting. My question is whether this Hebrew usage has spilled over into our office's English as sort of calque or whether, on the other hand, this is now English even outside of Israel.

I was born in the United States and raised there in the 1980s. I moved to Israel a couple of years ago and work in a primarily English-speaking corporate office. It has, as you might expect, many meetings. Around the office, I frequently hear the verb sit used as a synonym for have a meeting. For example,

Can we sit in fifteen minutes,

Would you like to sit on it (meaning have a meeting about it; 'it' the topic under discussion), and

I'm sitting with him later.

I've never heard this in the States, as far as I recall. I know that it works in Hebrew (the local language here): the word for meeting is, etymologically speaking, a "sitting", and people use the verb for sit to mean have a meeting. My question is whether this Hebrew usage has spilled over into our office's English as sort of calque or whether, on the other hand, this is now English even outside of Israel.

added 12 characters in body
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Edwin Ashworth
  • 87.2k
  • 12
  • 154
  • 272

I was born in the United States and raised there in the 1980s. I moved to Israel a couple of years ago and work in a primarily English-speaking corporate office. It has, as you might expect, many meetings. Around the office, I frequently hear the verb sit used as a synonym for have a meeting. For example,   

Can we sit in fifteen minutes,   

Would you like to sit on it (meaning about it = the topic under discussion), and   

I'm sitting with him later.

I've never heard this in the States, as far as I recall. I know that it works in Hebrew (the local language here): the word for meeting is, etymologically speaking, a "sitting", and people use the verb for sit to mean have a meeting. My question is whether this Hebrew usage has spilled over into our office's English as sort of calque or whether, on the other hand, this is now English even outside of Israel.

I was born in the United States and raised there in the 1980s. I moved to Israel a couple of years ago and work in a primarily English-speaking corporate office. It has, as you might expect, many meetings. Around the office, I frequently hear the verb sit used as a synonym for have a meeting. For example,  Can we sit in fifteen minutes,  Would you like to sit on it (meaning about it = the topic under discussion), and  I'm sitting with him later.

I've never heard this in the States, as far as I recall. I know that it works in Hebrew (the local language here): the word for meeting is, etymologically speaking, a "sitting", and people use the verb for sit to mean have a meeting. My question is whether this Hebrew usage has spilled over into our office's English as sort of calque or whether, on the other hand, this is now English even outside of Israel.

I was born in the United States and raised there in the 1980s. I moved to Israel a couple of years ago and work in a primarily English-speaking corporate office. It has, as you might expect, many meetings. Around the office, I frequently hear the verb sit used as a synonym for have a meeting. For example, 

Can we sit in fifteen minutes, 

Would you like to sit on it (meaning about it = the topic under discussion), and 

I'm sitting with him later.

I've never heard this in the States, as far as I recall. I know that it works in Hebrew (the local language here): the word for meeting is, etymologically speaking, a "sitting", and people use the verb for sit to mean have a meeting. My question is whether this Hebrew usage has spilled over into our office's English as sort of calque or whether, on the other hand, this is now English even outside of Israel.

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