What is your understanding of the word 'visit'?

@JudyEv (382337)

Rockingham, Australia

February 20, 2022 7:05pm CST

Another difference between Australian and American/Canadian (I think) usage is in the use of the word ‘visit’. For Australians, it simply means to call on some one. While you’re there, you chat, laugh and share news/gossip/whatever but, while you’re actually there, you’re not ‘visiting’. Whereas it seems that Americans/ Canadians can ‘visit’ while they’re in a car or a café or anywhere else. Does anyone from the UK care to comment? And perhaps our friends from India have a take on this. Photo of a friend visiting with Monty.

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24 responses

@DWDavis (25797)

• United States

21 Feb 22

Visit carries several different connotations here in the US and can vary depending on what part of the country you're in. Here in the south, when we use visit as a verb it can mean spending time talking and catching up with someone. For example: I visited with my colleague and we were talking about a student we share. Or it can mean traveling to stay with someone for a time that can be measured in hours or days. For example: I'm going to the coast to visit with my mother. When we use visit as a noun, it is the act of visiting. For example: My colleague and I had a nice visit. I expect my visit with my mother will be a pleasant one. Did this help?

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@noni1959 (13047)

• United States

21 Feb 22

It's the same here in the PNW.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

@noni1959 What's the PNW please? Something or other North West??

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

Yes, thanks. The third use, as a noun, isn't used here so much. We might say 'I expect my visit with my mother will be a pleasant one' but we wouldn't say 'My colleague and I had a nice visit'.

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@Babino (5756)

• Morocco

21 Feb 22

I'm Moroccan and to me, visiting people always meant going to their place to see them. Same as visiting some new place .. it's actually going there..

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

That's how it is with us too.

3 people like this

@Sreekala (34312)

• India

21 Feb 22

Exactly the same meaning for us too.

3 people like this

@kaylachan (84831)

• Daytona Beach, Florida

21 Feb 22

I personally consider a visit, when you meet with someone in-person reguardless of the location. But, that's just me.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

That's how I see it too. However, I wouldn't say 'I visited WITH someone'.

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@LadyDuck (502653)

• Italy

21 Feb 22

We use "visitare" in Italian, the meaning is go to see and spend time with (someone) socially. I would not consider "visiting" while in a car or a cafe, or in a restaurant, that is "meeting".

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@LadyDuck (502653)

• Italy

21 Feb 22

@JudyEv I think that so many people from different countries formed the actual United States, that the language mutated.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

@LadyDuck They probably have even more nationalities than Australia does - and over a greater expanse of time perhaps.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

Yes, that's how it is with us too.

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@DianneN (254926)

• United States

21 Feb 22

To me a visit is spending time with guests at my home or theirs. In a car or restaurant means something different - riding and talking or meeting for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

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@DianneN (254926)

• United States

22 Feb 22

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Feb 22

I find it fascinating how we have subtle differences in some meanings.

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@RubyHawk (99367)

• Atlanta, Georgia

21 Feb 22

I call it visiting when anyone comes to see me at my apartment or if I go to their place to see them.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

That's what we do but we wouldn't say 'we visited for a long/short time'.

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@RubyHawk (99367)

• Atlanta, Georgia

21 Feb 22

@JudyEv I Wouldn’t say a long or short time. I’d just say visited. I had friends in for a visit yesterday. Leo’s son and his wife came for a visit.

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@sjvg1976 (42727)

• Delhi, India

21 Feb 22

Visiting here means actually going to someone's place and meeting people there. I am from India.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Feb 22

That is my understanding too. Once you are at someone's place, then you chat or talk, but the chatting and talking isn't called visiting.

@jstory07 (148749)

• Roseburg, Oregon

21 Feb 22

I think of visit when someone comes over to your house to enjoy your company.

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@jstory07 (148749)

• Roseburg, Oregon

21 Feb 22

@JudyEv Even the cats next door visit me.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

That's the same for me too. But we don't usually say 'visit with'.

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@wolfgirl569 (135910)

• Marion, Ohio

21 Feb 22

I consider visiting when I am with someone anywhere.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

That's how I see it but we don't use 'visit with' someone.

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@sol_cee (38669)

• Philippines

21 Feb 22

In my dialect, it’s ‘bisita’ and it can also mean a guy courting a girl and visiting her in their house with flowers and chocolates

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

So the word is quite similar really.

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@Kandae11 (57230)

•

21 Feb 22

For me l would say "visit" means someone stopping by for a long or short period of time.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

So that's similar to us but we wouldn't say something like 'we had a good visit'.

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@porwest (112864)

• United States

21 Feb 22

Yep. For us it is just a "visit," but it can mean more than just a few hours. It could be days.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Feb 22

Same here too. But we don't talk of visiting 'with' someone.

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@porwest (112864)

• United States

22 Feb 22

@JudyEv Yeah, here we do. 'With' is often associated with the word 'visit' for us. I had a visit with my sister. We were out visiting with friends. Barbara came over to visit with me. As I always say, it is often very interesting that we all speak the same language and yet speak it very differently.

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@arunima25 (93194)

• Bangalore, India

21 Feb 22

It's the same meaning for us in India. Making a visit to someone's home or visiting a place.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Feb 22

The subtle differences are very interesting.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Feb 22

@arunima25 We have a lot of Indians living here now and we sometimes say that they are more British than the British as they speak so well.

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@arunima25 (93194)

• Bangalore, India

22 Feb 22

@JudyEv Yes, they are. And it would be even more so for non English speaking population. India gets its English from British rule and for us some of the American ones also sound so different. But anyway now world is reduced to a global village and we have more awareness of how the same language differs in different countries.

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@freelancermariagrace (29342)

• Philippines

21 Feb 22

It's like paying a visit to someone's home. :)

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

That is how it's used here too. But we wouldn't say 'we visited with ....'

@snowy22315 (209080)

• United States

21 Feb 22

I agree with DW Davis.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

We rarely say 'visit with'. DW Davis' response made sense to me.

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@rebelann (117259)

• El Paso, Texas

22 Feb 22

That word is so misused at times, to me a visit is when you go to a persons home but I have heard it used in reference to having a chat with a stranger in a grocery checkout line.

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@rebelann (117259)

• El Paso, Texas

22 Feb 22

I wouldn't either but some of the people I've met on base who come from other parts of the US do.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Feb 22

It's that last connotation that we don't use here.

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@RebeccasFarm (91297)

• United States

21 Feb 22

Visiting here means simply paying a visit.

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@RebeccasFarm (91297)

• United States

22 Feb 22

@JudyEv Well I am only speaking as the Americans around here refer to it as. In our immediate family, we do not say visit. We say come over or come on over or we are going over to. We are aliens in this land here

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Feb 22

Okay. We never 'visit with' someone. We pay a visit then just chat or talk.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

23 Feb 22

@RebeccasFarm I don't know whether to put a happy or a sad face.

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@Ronrybs (21492)

• London, England

21 Feb 22

I tend to use like you. One of those little differences, I guess

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Feb 22

It's interesting how there are subtle differences.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

23 Feb 22

@Ronrybs Yes, I guess so.

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@Ronrybs (21492)

• London, England

22 Feb 22

@JudyEv I suppose it is like slang and evolves over time and maybe accents have something to do with it as well

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@thelme55 (79323)

• Germany

21 Feb 22

Thank you for the heads up. That is good to know. For me, a visit means coming to my place or I will go to their place for a few minutes or an hour to chat.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Feb 22

That's my understanding too but we don't call the chatting 'visiting with' a person.

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@thelme55 (79323)

• Germany

23 Feb 22

@JudyEv I don’t call „chatting“ as visiting either.

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@LindaOHio (222623)

• United States

21 Feb 22

DW Davis seems to have described the US version well. Love the picture.

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@JudyEv (382337)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Feb 22

His explanation made perfect sense to me. I'm glad you like the picture.

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@LindaOHio (222623)

• United States

22 Feb 22

@JudyEv I love animals, as you know. I could look at animal pictures all day long.

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