Would "I poke you later" a rude expression?

Question

I would like to know how rude or informal is tell to someone "poke you later..." or "poke me when you're done with XYZ...".

First question after a search, still getting used to the language stacks...

Answer 1

Be careful, poke has a slang meaning:

verb

10. (transitive) slang

(of a man) to have sexual intercourse with

[collinsdictionary.com]

So "I will poke you later" may make some people snicker. It might be safer to say, "I will give you a poke later."

But I still wouldn't say that personally because the image of physically poking someone with a finger or a stick is aggressive, so in my opinion it wouldn't be appropriate to say that to a colleague.

(I understand that Facebook has something called poking, so maybe that has shifted the meaning of the word somewhat, but I'm not on Facebook so I can't comment on that.)

Sometimes that mild aggression would be okay. For instance you could say to a colleague, "I emailed X from company Y about Z three days ago, but he still hasn't replied. If he doesn't reply by the end of today, I will give him a poke." You could also use the word prod.

Answer 2

"Poke you/me ..." is actually quite informal. It's not offensive but this phrase can't be used for everyone, maybe for just a group of friends or some acquaintances. You can use alternatives like "Notify me ..." to be on the safer side.