A woman in Hudson, New York, says her boyfriend, who grew up on Long Island, uses the expression call out sick, meaning “to phone an employer to say you’re not coming to work because you’re ill.” But she uses the phrase call in sick to mean the very same thing. To call out sick is much more common in the New York City area than other parts of the United States. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Call Out Sick vs. Call In Sick”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Lisbeth in Hudson, New York.
Hi, welcome.
What can we do for you?
Well, my boyfriend was born and raised on Long Island. He hasn’t lived there for 25 years, but still every so often he says something that I think to myself, that’s exactly the opposite of what I would say. And the one that’s really in question right now is that he’ll say that three people called out at work today, meaning they didn’t come in or they called in sick. And I say, well, three people called in at work today. Called in sick. Called in sick. So he says called out, which I don’t understand.
And what’s your background?
Actually, English is my second language, but I’ve lived in a lot of places. I’ve lived in Canada, and I’ve lived all across the U.S. – huh. So I’ve heard a lot of different variations, and when he said that, that was actually the first time I’ve said it, and I’ve asked people about it, and a couple of people who live down Long Island Way kind of go, yeah, I’ve heard that, but I’ve never heard anyone else use it.
That’s interesting. – huh. Okay, we can settle this. Are you sitting down?
Oh, don’t tell me that.
Well, it’s good news and bad news both, all right? The thing is both are in common use in the United States. Both calling out sick and calling in sick are widely used. However, calling out sick is more common in the New York City metropolitan area. And maybe a few states here and there, Philadelphia, a little south, New Jersey, of course. So it is a thing. It has been recorded. Linguists and lexicographers do know about it. And probably a million or more people say it. Call out sick.
Okay.
She sounds so…
But a million out of… What? A million? You can’t dismiss a million people? That doesn’t make sense to me. What we’re looking at here is how you divide the phrase up. All right. So you’re calling in sick. Are you calling out sick? Do you hear the division there? So one place we have a two-word phrasal verb to call in sick. And the other one, we have just a single word verb to call out sick. And out sick kind of is the collocation together. Those two words belonging together. And the other one, calling in are the two words that belong together.
Well, that totally makes sense then. I have to say I always called in sick. Called in sick, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Maybe because I was thinking of the excuse. I was thinking more about what was going on in the office rather than calling, saying I’m going to be out sick. I’m more focused on the person I’m talking to explaining that I have strep throat or something. But I know why the people that you talked to who are also from Long Island didn’t necessarily really say that they used that because it’s not that common. But I remember distinctly running into this when I worked in New York City. It was a thing where some people called out sick and some people called in sick. And then they would go to the pharmacy to get their prescription, and would they stand online or in line?
Well, in New York City, you wait online.
Right. You probably wait rather than stand online. We had a discussion very early in our relationship when he stood online with me standing next to him in line.
Oh, my.
And your posture was very different.
Yeah, I do that now. I still stand online.
That’s not right. My years in New York City means I still stand online even now. And I blurt it out without thinking. And I’m like, oh, they’re probably going to think I’m really weird.
Wow.
Yeah. I’m interested that you solved that problem early in your relationship. I mean, you resolved that you were going to say it differently. It was very early, and it didn’t break us up, so yes.
Okay.
Well, that’s good. So to recap, the short version is he’s fine to say calling out sick. It’s just not nearly as common as calling in sick.
Okay.
Well, thank you.
Yeah, our pleasure, Elizabeth. Thanks for calling. And maybe I’ll hide this episode from him.
Sure.
Yeah, go for it. I’m with you. Take care now.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Bye.
Well, do you have a dispute in your relationship about language? We’d love to hear about it. So call us at 877-929-9673 or send the story in email to words@waywordradio.org.
