Outsourcing
Etymology
A late-twentieth-century business coinage combining "out" (outside the firm) with "sourcing" (obtaining), from Latin "surgere" via "source" (a spring or origin). The word crystallized as companies moved functions like manufacturing and support to specialist vendors. Its rise tracks the globalization of supply and labor.
noun · /OWT-sor-sing/
Paying an outside company to perform work that an organization used to do in-house.
What it names
The choice to buy a capability rather than own it, a decision that reshapes cost, control, and who bears the risk.
Example
They cut costs by outsourcing customer support, then lost customers to the delays it caused.
Related idea
Outsourcing means hiring an outside firm regardless of location; "offshoring" specifically means moving work to another country, whether to your own staff or a vendor. You can outsource next door, or offshore to your own overseas office.