See example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Chinese

China is connected by land to Europe. So... Is a Chinese National moving to France technically "overseas"? I mean technically you could tavel by land there?

🤔🤔🤔

the dictionary is a lie...

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[–] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

The word goes back to at least 1580 and at that time, and for a good while thereafter, the most prominent speakers of the English language lived in a kingdom on a small island in Northern Europe that they shared with only one other nation until the two joined into one. So for a good chunk of history and during the development of modern English, most travel between “home” and a foreign land required going over seas. Thus “overseas” took on a meaning of foreigness or awayness.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    [Angry Welsh noise, probably involving a lot of consonants and a few double L's]

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    Don’t blame me. Blame the English. I looked it up before posting: the Kingdom of England had annexed Wales by 1536.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Does a nation cease to exist after it is conquered? All the efforts to that effect by the English notwithstanding, it's still there.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I did not intend to imply that it did. That’s why I said “one other nation” apart from the kingdom, since the nation of Wales was incorporated into the Kingdom at the time.

    I suppose with “until the two nations joined” I did accidentally classify the Kingdom of England as a single nation. My sincerest apologies. I have corrected the error.

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