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Off Of

Posted by TheFallen on September 24, 2004

In Reply to: Off From posted by R. Berg on September 23, 2004

: : : I have been hearing the term "off from" a lot at work recently. I remember it being "off of" instead. Can anyone help me out? Example: I got that information off from the internet.

: : Have your colleagues been drinking? "Off of work", I've heard "Off from work" I've heard. "Off from the Internet" is just gobbledy gook. "Off the Internet" or "From the Internet" are fine.

: : It think the difference is that with something like "off from work", off is used in the sense of leaving, i.e. "I'm off". Where am I off from? I'm off/leaving from work. In the Internet example, "off" is used in same sense as "from". So "off" and "from" used together are redundant. That is why I think it sounds odd.

: : Language people could probably explain it better. But in general, you aren't crazy. It isn't a great use of the language.

: English Major, I haven't heard that usage here in the backward United States. What part of the world are you in that has surpassed us in linguistic inventiveness?

"Off of" is a fairly common but ugly piece of slangy misusage in the UK, eg "I got it off of a friend of mine." Needless to say, a simple "from" is both the correct and the more elegant preposition.

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