"Off of" is not uncommon in other phrases even when the "of" is not needed, e.g., "I washed the mud off of my car" or "I took that appointment off of my schedule."
Mixing parts of unrelated or semi-related phrases is not unusual. My favorite is "cast in stone."
Not as much as the misuse of the apostrophe - especially in the UK.
Back in the late 1990s I heard it used in Cambridge Mass and it appeared that "based off of" meant "derived from" to some people working there. A rather dim bunch, I thought, since as well as using such bizarre phrases they thought that the way to win an argument was to scream and swear and generally behave disgracefully in the hope that they could be more disgraceful than their opposition. That, in my experience, was not how competent engineers and scientists debate, so I found myself strongly inclined to regard their vocabulary, including the phrase Julie asked about, as decidedly horrible. I've never heard that phrase anywhere else - not in Menlo Park, or San Francisco, or Los Angeles, (or Seattle, or Chicago, or New Hampshire, or New York) so maybe Eugenia's suggested attribution of it to silicon valley is off target or maybe I haven't spent enough time in the USA (haven't been there since 2007) to know where the expression is used.
Thanks for the feedback. Seems I'm in good company.
Yes, but not as much as "all intensive purposes." :-D
Have seen pretty often and edit just as often.
Also very popular: Someone is "based out of" a particular geographical area, as opposed to "based in." So very strange.
While I agree up to a point, Sasha, there is a useful distinction between "based in" and "based out of". For example, someone who works in New York is based in New York, but someone whose office is in New York but works all over the tri-state area could say they're "based out of New York"... but perhaps that distinction only exists in my head!
I can see that same distinction that you see, Keith, for both 'based out of' & 'based off of'. For me the 'based on/in' versions emphasise the base itself, whereas the 'based off/out of' versions sort-of de-emphasise that base, insert a figurative 'distance' to that base.
No comment re usefulness.
I would suggest the change to ‘based on’ as well. It’s a reminder for us writers and editors that people typically write the way they speak!
I have never heard anyone say or write 'based off of'. I do read however , especially in advertising and promotional copy, "we are loving this" which scratches my last nerve,
Charles Myhill LOLzzz Yes, thank you Mc “I’m lovin ’ it” Donald’s!!
Fear not. The Corpus of Contemporary American English has just 41 records for ‘based off of’. It has 79,933 for ‘based on’.
I hear younger people using it all the time. I still change it in written text, but I suspect it's the wave of the future.
Tag Pillay
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