Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Right. I tried to explain it from the offset. Covid is or was supposedly respiratory virus. I worked in a grocery store.
To get an early start advantage, it is essential to collate all the key contracts right at the offset, in the pre-M&A diligence phase and begin the contract …
Right from the offset it was clear that THE FEVER 333 was no conventional project. The band revealed itself by staging a political …
It seems pretty standard for some:
What does offset mean? ¶ Definitions.net https://www.definitions.net › definition › offset ¶ A time at which something begins; outset. You can hear the gun go off at the offset of the race.
The history is murky, but it may be old:
Wiktionary defines offset as: ‘’ 3 – (obsolete, c. 1555) A time at which something begins; outset.’’ However, the Oxford dictionary does not have such a definition. I understand that you should not use
offset in this context. – Archa Jun 19, 2014 at 19:27
Still, as that last quote suggests, it is wrong for most of us nowadays. Yet the (eggcornish) reasoning is clear enough. The outset is when you set out; why shouldn’t the offset be when you set off?
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Another possible derivation, from a source I am not familiar with:
Perhaps it should have been from the off, which is perfectly normal and preserves the racing metaphor. – Tim Lymington Oct 3, 201
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2023-11-19 03:36:50)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Offsets! Instantly I thought of those miniature versions, clones of the parent plant, that often grow on members of the onion family for example. “From the offset” employing that kind of offset seems an interesting and meaningful expression but we’re moving away from eggcorn territory.
My second thought was that it might be a Scots expression, a cousin perhaps of the mysterious outwith which those south of the border know only as ‘outside’, but no. And a third think has me half-remembering having heard offset replacing onset for, as you point out:
The outset is when you set out; why shouldn’t the offset be when you set off?
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Similarly, perhaps, we have this variation of onset which is possibly no more than a slip of the fingers.
It appears the franchise had financial problems from the onsent.
From the onsent of the pandemic in early 2020, Brian has been conducting mediations and arbitrations online via the Zoom platform.
Let me state right from the onsent that this area is not my forte.
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Perhaps onsent was once a word? https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/onsend (what is the source? Not in OED. Some kind of Middle English Dictionary?)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Interesting, and some are still using it in the sense mentioned:
We used the luggage forwarding system in Japan to onsend our luggage to our next destination and it was fantastic!
Consideration of items removed from the onsent agenda for discussion.
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