Oversight and overview

Question

Can you use the word oversight and overview interchangeably to mean comprehensive view (not the act of supervision) in British English?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Can you use the word oversight and overview interchangeably to mean comprehensive view (not the act of supervision) in British English?[/nq]
I say no. We discussed this 18 months ago:
http://tinyurl.com/ngt6
I asked the reverse question - does "oversight" in US English mean the same as "overview"?

David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
==
The address is valid today, but I change it periodically.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Can you use the word oversight and overview interchangeably to mean comprehensive view (not the act of supervision) in British English?[/nq]
I don't think so. See http://www.onelook.com/?w=oversight.

The use of oversight to mean 'mistake' has rather spoiled it even for the meaning of 'supervision'.
Jim Allan

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Can you use the word oversight and overview interchangeably to mean comprehensive view (not the act of supervision) in British English?[/nq]
[nq:1]I don't think so. See http://www.onelook.com/?w=oversight. The use of oversight to mean 'mistake' has rather spoiled it even for the meaning of 'supervision'.[/nq]
I'm a bit surprised. Why do you think so? I don't see how the two meanings can be confused, but then I only see the "supervision" sense in fixed phrases like "Congressional Oversight Committee." That doesn't look at all like the normal "I apologize for the oversight."

Are there times when it's ambiguous? Or is it the straight-line setup factor: is the supervision use sure to generate a wisecrack?

Best Donna Richoux
An American living in the Netherlands

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I don't think so. See http://www.onelook.com/?w=oversight. The use of oversight to mean 'mistake' has rather spoiled it even for the meaning of 'supervision'.[/nq]
[nq:1]I'm a bit surprised. Why do you think so? I don't see how the two meanings can be confused, but ... in fixed phrases like "Congressional Oversight Committee." That doesn't look at all like the normal "I apologize for the oversight."[/nq]
I meant that the 'mistake' meaning is much more common and so a phrase like "Congressional Oversight Committee" is likely to appear funny even though the meaning intended is obvious.
Accordingly people are more likely to use a word like supervisory . Oversight in that meaning becomes incressingly restriced to what you call "fixed phrases".
[nq:1]Are there times when it's ambiguous? Or is it the straight-line setup factor: is the supervision use sure to generate a wisecrack?[/nq]
It would tend to generate an internal chuckle at least. Although "we need more oversight" is not the same as "we need more oversights" the tension between the two meanings of oversight is very conducive to humor.
If we try to find a corresponding verb to oversight we have look over and overlook which correspond reasonably well to the two meanings. But we don't say * sightover though we can use look over as a noun as in: "I'll give it a look over." But we can't say: "The mistake was an overlook." All most odd in the way that language is odd.
Similarly the meaning of gay in "we had a gay old time" is obvious enough but the use of gay to mean 'homosexual' has mostly spoit the word for its use in its older sense despite their usually being no ambiguity as to which meaning is intended.
Jim Allan

Oversight and overview

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