Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
w/c Login/Join
 
Member
Picture of Kalleh
posted
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?
 
Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I need more context.
 
Posts: 2428Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of BobHale
posted Hide Post
There's certainly enough context there for any Brit to know exactly what is meant, which I think is Kalleh's point.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
Posts: 9421 | Location: EnglandReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of bethree5
posted Hide Post
My guess was, Kalleh informed her colleague she'd be touring in the area, & he advised his loo was available if needed. Big Grin
 
Posts: 2605 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Bethree5, you're back!!! Hooorraaaaaayyyy!!!!!
 
Posts: 6168 | Location: Muncie, IndianaReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of bethree5
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Geoff:
Bethree5, you're back!!! Hooorraaaaaayyyy!!!!!

Big Grin Red Face Razz
 
Posts: 2605 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Kalleh
posted Hide Post
No more context to be had, goofy. I suspect it's not used in Canada, either. Apparently it means "the week commencing."
 
Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of BobHale
posted Hide Post
w/c for "week commencing" is so ubiquitous here that it would never occur to me that Americans might not understand it.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
Posts: 9421 | Location: EnglandReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
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.
 
Posts: 2428Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of BobHale
posted Hide Post
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".


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
Posts: 9421 | Location: EnglandReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Kalleh
posted Hide Post
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.
 
Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
<Proofreader>
posted
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?
 
Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
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.
 
Posts: 2878 | Location: Shoreline, WA, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Kalleh
posted Hide Post
My internet sources said it means week commencing.

I have always used w/c to mean wheelchair.
 
Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 


Copyright © 2002-12