Why is it called "overseas" even if a dispora population move to a place connected by land?

Comments

• MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The word goes back to at least 1580 and at the 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 those two nations 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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  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

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

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    • MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      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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• AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Before trains, sea travel was the standard way to travel long distances even if a land route was available. Sea voyages came to represent any destination that was far enough away that communities wouldn’t be in continuous contact.

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• FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  It’s ……not.

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• imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Why do you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway.

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• piyuv@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Language is a living thing, it evolves as time progresses.

  “Oversea” is currently synonymous with “abroad”. When it was first came to use, geography wasn’t as much advanced as it is today.

  See en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oversea

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• litchralee@sh.itjust.works ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  A few factors:

  • Human population centers historically were built by natural waterways and/or by the sea, to enable access to trade, seafood, and obviously, water for drinking and agriculture
  • When the fastest mode of land transport is a horse (ie no railways or automobiles), the long-distance roads between nations which existed up to the 1700s were generally unimproved and dangerous, both from the risk of breakdown but also highway robbery. Short-distance roads made for excellent invasion routes for an army, and so those tended to fall under control of the same nation.
  • Water transport was (and still is) capable of moving large quantities of tonnage, and so was the predominant form of trade, only seeing competition when land transport improved and air transport was introduced.

  So going back centuries when all the “local” roads are still within the same country (due to conquest), and all the long-distance roads were treacherous, slow, and usually uncomfortable (ie dysentery on the Oregon Trail), the most obvious way to get to another country would have been to get a ride on a trading ship. An island nation would certain regard all other countries as being “overseas”, but so would an insular nation hemmed in by mountains but sitting directly on the sea.

  TL;DR: for most of human history, other countries were most reasonably reached by sea. Hence “overseas”.

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• xiao@sh.itjust.works ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I think the term “China diaspora” is more appropriate.

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  • MelastSB@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It’s only a diaspora if it comes from the diaspora region of the Middle-East. Otherwise it’s just sparkling migration

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    • xiao@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yes, originally, but the words are also used in their extended meaning.

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