Definition in South Africa:
coloured - definition of coloured in A Dictionary of South African English - DSAE
I repeat, I'd never had used this word if the convo with former prosecutor were of US.
Former prosecutor with whom I talked was of Johannesburg, South Africa.
And "coloured" in this specific context means "a person who is of mixed ethnicity".
If you say to a US LEO "The person is known for liking to
live in the Gramadoelas", your LEO will wonder what are you talking about.
In South Africa, "living in the Gramadoelas" means living in the middle of nowhere:
GRAMADOELAS | Definition of GRAMADOELAS by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com also meaning of GRAMADOELAS
Now, in South Africa, "coloured" is still used in legal decisions, for example this decision from the Equality Court (Rarayi and Others v Oak Valley Estates and Others (EC13/2019) [2019] ZAEQC 7 (22 November 2019) on SAFLII):
Rarayi and Others v Oak Valley Estates and Others (EC13/2019) [2019] ZAEQC 7 (22 November 2019)
That's why I say that while in the US, using "coloured" is an absolute no no, it's not exactly the case in South Africa.
A MP report in North America can contain "regular smoking pot" (for the marihuana) while a MP report in South Africa will mention "regular smoking dagga".
"Dagga" means the marihuana in South Africa, but if you read the MP report thinking that it's a US or Canada report, it can confuse anyone.
That's why for the "coloured" from my convo with ex prosecutor in SA, you could think that it had a racist meaning because in the US, "coloured" for Afro-American people is an insult.
In South Africa, "coloured" means "neither Black nor White" and is still use in legal lingo in the anti-discrimination field: Equality Court is a specialised Court dealing only about discriminations.
I tell you about the linguistic differences between US and South Africa because I have better knowledge of South African English.
My knowledge of Indian English, Malay English or Singapore English is much more limited.
However, in Singapore, you can encounter "Mdm" for Madam.
Again, if we (included Your Truly) don't pay attention to the country of the MP report, we can easily misconstruct what the MP report says. Even in both country where English is official language or working language.
I wanted to use the issue we had with the word "coloured" in South Africa when reporting a convo with a former SA prosecutor specifically using this word in a context of South Africa society and a sleuther answered about "coloured" in the US context.
I repeat myself, I would had never used "coloured" about a person of colour in the US!
I repeat, we have to pay attention about the PM file country of origin: if we have a PM file in English from Cyprus, we have to be careful about the word used in North America but with a different meaning in Cyprus.
And yes, Cyprus is in Europe and it belongs to European Union and Commonwealth, sources:
Cyprus (Commonwealth)
Cyprus | European Union (European Union)
I say that our JD is the typical case where the missing person file in English can contain differences which may be confusing when reading in a Northern America context.
"Coloured" in South Africa is typical of the issue. Same word but meaning not exactly identical in another English speaking country.