Quote Originally Posted by Nelsonca61 View Post
Perhaps to you it is. For me, its a totally harmless expression. If i asked someone from work to a Party that I had organised for someone in my family on their arrival, I would introduce the person to my family as a work colleague, this would make it perfectly clear the relationship between myself and the person, "this is a colleague of mine" doesn't paint the whole picture
It isn't a harmful expression in the slightest it is just stupid, introducing someone as a colleague does paint the whole picture. A work colleague and a colleague is exactly the same thing.