one(-)off » one(-)of
Spotted in the wild:
- “I was under the impression it was a one of fee not an annual one.” (link)
- “Perhaps, rather predictably, the mainstream media coverage of WSF portrayed it as a one-of event.” (link)
- “I worked out a lot and am getting better, its a brilliant price for a one of payment to have your personal trainer for life.” (link)
I came across this one a week ago when my friend Ken Rudolph offered “one-off” as an eggcorn for “one of” ‘one-time, unique’ (which he took to be a shortening of “one of a kind”); he had considerable difficulty accepting my claim that “one-off” (which made no sense to him) was the original. (In comments on this site, Arthraey Angosii similarly identified “one-off” as the innovation, though Nigel Pond countered that it was the correct version.)
Nevertheless, the OED has the adjective “one-off” from 1934 and the noun from 1947, and has (as yet) no entry for “one of” (in the relevant sense).
My thanks to Chris Waigl for figuring out how to search for cites on this one and offering me the products of this search.