I received an email from a UK colleague, saying, "I have plenty of availability w/c 19th March..."

I had to look up w/c. Do other Americans know what this means, without looking it up?

I need more context.

There's certainly enough context there for any Brit to know exactly what is meant, which I think is Kalleh's point.

My guess was, Kalleh informed her colleague she'd be touring in the area, & he advised his loo was available if needed.

Bethree5, you're back!!! Hooorraaaaaayyyy!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
Bethree5, you're back!!! Hooorraaaaaayyyy!!!!!

No more context to be had, goofy. I suspect it's not used in Canada, either. Apparently it means "the week commencing."

w/c for "week commencing" is so ubiquitous here that it would never occur to me that Americans might not understand it.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
No more context to be had, goofy.

There is always context. This sentence must be part of a conversation. Things were said before it and things were said after it.

As I said above (a few posts ago) for someone British no more context would be needed although I agree there would be more context available.
"w/c" followed by a date couldn't - to me - have any other meaning. "w/e" (which is equally common) followed by a date could - again, to me - only mean "week ending".

Yes, goofy, there was more to the sentence, but it was that much that should have given it away, as Bob said. Here was the whole sentence: "At the minute I have plenty of availability w/c 19th March if you would like to suggest a date and time." Once I told her I had to look up w/c, to be sure what she meant, she said, "Well, they say you learn something every day and today I learnt that you don’t use w/c in the US," followed by a smiley face.

I do love the language differences.

quote:

w/c" followed by a date couldn't - to me - have any other meaning. "w/e" (which is equally common) followed by a date could - again, to me - only mean "week ending".

But what does the "c" stand for? Commencing? Continuing? Comrade? Colostomy?

I thought w/c stood for water-closet, but that didn't make sense in that sentence. Here is a list I found for w/c (https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/W%2fc):
Acronym Definition
W/C With Care
W/C Watercolor (painting)
W/C Working Capital
W/C Wheel Chair
W/C water closet (half bathroom)
W/C Week Commencing
W/C walk-in closet
W/C Wound Care
W/C Water-Cement Ratio (concrete mix design)
W/C With Comment
W/C Tungsten Carbide (Tungsten = Wolfram)
W/C Work Center
W/C Word Choice
W/C Written Correspondence
W/C Workers Compensation policy (insurance)
W/C Week Closing (referring to a date or deadline)
W/C Word Clearing
W/C Wrong Conversation

Note that this list says w/c can mean "week commencing" or "week closing." That's confusing.

My internet sources said it means week commencing.

I have always used w/c to mean wheelchair.