OUTSOURCE?
The Green Troll
wrote:
>In glancing over a piece of spam, advertising a book on home
employment for
>computer users, I came across a verb that is new to me --
"outsource." It was
>used as follows:
>>. . .It is a fact that many national and multi-national firms
outsource work
>to homeworkers.> Is this a common word? What does it mean?
Why is 'outsource' often intransitive, while these are transitive:
outbid, outdo, outfit, outgrow, outlast, outmatch, outpace, outrage,
outsmart, and outvote?
-- Spud <http://www.rev.net/~aloe/couchpotato>
Odysseus
>
> Why is 'outsource' often intransitive, while these are transitive:
> outbid, outdo, outfit, outgrow, outlast, outmatch, outpace, outrage,
> outsmart, and outvote?
>
rather than more literally indicating a outward direction, and their
object is the thing or person to which a comparison is being made.
Note that they change their meaning or become unidiomatic if
separated. "Outfit" is different; like "outsource" I'd expect its
behaviour to be similar to that of the verb without the prefix.
--
Odysseus
Don Phillipson
> wrote:
> >In glancing over a piece of spam, advertising a book on home
> employment for
> >computer users, I came across a verb that is new to me --
> "outsource." It was
> >used as follows:
> > . .It is a fact that many national and multi-national firms
> > outsource work to homeworkers.
> Is this a common word? What does it mean?
Outsource means contracting a business function
to an independent contractor instead of doing
it yourself. Many businesses used to employ cooks
and cleaners for a staff restaurant. Nowadays they
find it cheaper to contract for a catering company
to run their staff restaurant, i.e. they outsource their
food needs. Several new businesses have arisen
for this purpose, e.g. payroll companies. These
are paid by contract to issue paycheques, collect
income tax and send it to the government etc: i.e.
the payroll function has been outsourced.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
Donna Richoux
> "Odysseus" <odysseu...@yahoo-dot.ca> wrote in message
> news:4157E965...@yahoo-dot.ca...
> I don't think it is intransitive. The business is outsourced. You can't just
> outsource without having something *to* outsource.
>
I agree, although there seems to be some variation. I just looked at the
first twenty Google hits for "we outsourced". Most of them, 85%, were
transitive. But there were three like this:
Initially, we outsourced to only one partner
We outsourced for economics and work overload. We
outsourced so we would not have to lay off employees when the boom
vanished. ...
In San Diego County, we outsourced with CSC and other key
technology companies,
I think this means the verb is used both transitively and
intransitively, but I'd be open to other labels.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux
meirman
Phillipson" <d.phil...@ttrryytteell.com> posted:
Were payroll companies the first? I think it was because it was
worth their while to buy a computer and solicit business from places
that didn't want to get mired in computers, or weren't big enough to
make full use of the kind of computer that was for sale. ADP is big,
at least in the eastern US.
I hadn't thought of it, maybe the success with payrolls caused them to
go on to company cafeterias and restaurants, medical clinics, etc.
s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 20 years
Steve Hayes
<d.phil...@ttrryytteell.com> wrote:
>Outsource means contracting a business function
>to an independent contractor instead of doing
>it yourself. Many businesses used to employ cooks
>and cleaners for a staff restaurant. Nowadays they
>find it cheaper to contract for a catering company
>to run their staff restaurant, i.e. they outsource their
>food needs. Several new businesses have arisen
>for this purpose, e.g. payroll companies. These
>are paid by contract to issue paycheques, collect
>income tax and send it to the government etc: i.e.
>the payroll function has been outsourced.
And the corollary is usually "core business".
The board of directors or whatever spend a few days in a bosberaad (dunno what
that is in AmE or BrE or OzE) and come up with a mission statement that
states their core business with a lot of inspirational thoughts about it
(thany you, Patience Strong), and then decide to outsource everything else.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk