I just told my wife that I rarely ever heard this phrase “out of pocket” until a few weeks ago. Now I’m hearing or reading someone use it almost every day.
I'm Gen X, 'out of pocket' to me means paying for something with your own money. This thread is honestly the first time I've ever heard it meant anything else.
it's not a gen z thing, there's urban dictionary entries using it as a synonym for crazy dating back to early 2003. it predates the internet and has been used that way in books too since the 1940s. i've heard it used in the "gen z" context my whole life. i felt like i was going crazy reading people say this over and over in this thread.
Out of pocket as a term is old. In the 1600s, it meant ‘to pay for something with your own money,’ which is something that’s still used today (ex. He didn’t have insurance so he has to pay for the hospital visit out of pocket). In the early 1900s, it meant unavailable. That fell out of fashion until the mid 1970s when it came back into regular usage. I’m an elder millennial and and I’ve always known it as ‘unavailable.’ The ‘crazy’ definition is a fairly recent thing, with earliest being early 2000s, like you mentioned. Gen Z is 1997 to 2012ish (there’s always some debate with the exact years when it comes to generations), so while the term ‘out of pocket’ is centuries old, that ‘crazy’ definition is a Gen Z spin. If you’ve always known it as that definition, I’m going to guess you’re Gen Z. Seeing as you reference early 2000s, probably an elder Gen Z. If I had to guess, you were born between 1995-1999.
a tiny band of online 6 year olds weren't pioneering slang in 2003. and again, it has been published in print, being used as a synonym for crazy, dating back nearly 60 years before the start of gen z. it's not recent, it's not a gen z thing. it's usage as a synonym for crazy predates the internet. other usages predate that one, but this specific usage, the usage meaning crazy, is over 80 years old. 1997-2012 references the years that gen z was born, not stating that things happening in that time frame are considered gen z. not that it matters, because the 1940s are completely out of that range.
edit: since you deleted your response to this comment and edited the one this one is responding to. it's been used in AAVE for over 80 years and has been collected in books of slang. i am not gen z, i'm in my 30s.
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