ever since i posted my gold solo, everyone has been biting off of it.

bruh you forgot the (GTFIH) (srs) (no whiteknights) tags

Q: Listening to you on WNYC the other day, I was surprised to hear you use the term “illiterate” to describe the construction “off of” (as in “Keep off of the couch”). I’m a post-doctoral fellow in linguistics who uses this non-standard form. And judging by Google, it’s widely attested.

A: I’ve been bothered by that “illiterate” statement ever since it left my mouth. It was uncharacteristic of me. I’m not generally so judgmental. Even my husband let me have it when I got home from the radio studio!

My big Webster’s New International Dictionary (in a 1956 printing of the second edition) does indeed say “off of” (meaning “off”) is “now illiterate.”

However, the Oxford English Dictionary labels it “in later use only colloq. (nonstandard) and regional.” In other words, this construction was once standard, but is no longer.

For centuries, nobody considered the “of” redundant. The OED says that “off of” may have been around since the mid-15th century. Here are some relevant citations, beginning with the earliest (where it appears as “of of”):

circa 1450, from a medical text: “Take a sponfull of the licour … of of the fyir and sette it in good place tyl that it be ny colde.”

1667, from Andrew Marvell: “The Lords and we cannot yet get off of the difficultyes risen betwixt us.”

1712, from Richard Steele, writing in the Spectator: “I could not keep my Eyes off of her.”

1884, from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn: “I’d borrow two or three dollars off of the judge for him.”

By the time Twain put those words in Huck’s mouth they were probably considered a regionalism. (As Twain wrote in an author’s note, “In this book a number of dialects are used.”)

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage says the “off of” construction lost its respectability in the last quarter of the 19th century. Although it has “faded into the past” in Britain, M-W notes, it has become idiomatic in the US.

Today, the usage guide says, this “innocuous idiom” seems to be used primarily in speech in contexts ranging from “uneducated” to “general.”

“If it is part of your personal idiom and you are not writing on an especially elevated plane,” M-W adds, “you have no reason to avoid off of.”

I admit that I went too far in calling “off of” an illiterate usage. This isn’t 1956. But I still think it’s nonstandard and doesn’t belong in the best written English. Conversation and informal writing? Sure!

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.) says: “The compound preposition off of is generally regarded as informal and is best avoided in formal speech and writing: He stepped off (not off of) the platform.”

Another source, Garner’s Modern American Usage (3d ed.), finds the construction “much inferior” to the form without the “of.”

The author, Bryan A. Garner, puts the usage at Stage 4 in his “Language-Change Index,” which means “Ubiquitous but….” (In his system of gauging change in the language, Stage 5 means “Fully accepted.”)

One day “off of” will undoubtedly be accepted as standard American English, but not yet.

Interestingly, many other pairs of prepositions are routinely coupled in English: “next to,” “away from,” “out of,” and so on.

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language has an extensive discussion of prepositions followed by prepositional phrases. “Because,” “ahead,” “instead,” “upward,” “alongside,” “inside,” “outside,” “out,” and others are often followed by prepositional phrases beginning with “of.”

However, the Cambridge Grammar notes that the combination of “off” followed by an “of” phrase occurs only in American English.

www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/12/is-off-of-so-awful.html

COUNT LEO NIKOLAYEVICH TOLSTOY was born

August 28, 1828, at the family estate of Yasna-

ya Polyana, in the province of Tula. His moth-

er died when he was three and his father six

years later. Placed in the care of his aunts, he

passed many of his early years at Kazan, where,

in 1844, after a preliminary training by French

tutors, he entered the university. He cared lit-

tle for the university and in 1847 withdrew be-

cause of "ill-health and domestic circum-

stances." He had, however, done a great deal

of reading, of French, English, and Russian

novels, the New Testament, Voltaire, and

Hegel. The author exercising the greatest in-

fluence upon him at this time was Rousseau;

he read his complete works and for sometime

wore about his neck a medallion of Rousseau.

While at
Tiflis, preparing for his examinations as a
cadet, he wrote the first portion of the trilogy,
Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth, in which he
celebrated the happiness of "being with Na-
ture, seeing her, communing with her." He al-
so began The Cossacks with the intention of
showing that culture is the enemy of happi-
ness. Although continuing his army life, he
gradually came to realize that "a military ca-
reer is not for me, and the sooner I get out of
it and devote myself entirely to literature the
better." His Sevastopol Sketches (1855) were
so successful that Czar Nicholas issued special
orders that he should be removed from a post
of danger.

That year, and
again in 1860, he traveled in Europe. At Yas-
naya Polyana in 1861 he liberated his serfs and
opened a school, established on the principle
that "everything which savours of compulsion
is harmful." He started a magazine to promote
his notions on education and at the same time
served as an official arbitrator for grievances
between the nobles and the recently emanci-
pated serfs. By the end of 1863 he was so ex-
hausted that he discontinued his activities and
retired to the steppes to drink koumis for his
health.

Tolstoy had been contemplating marriage
for some time, and in 1862 he married Sophie
Behrs, sixteen years his junior, and the daugh-
ter of a fashionable Moscow doctor. Their
early married life at Yasnaya Polyana was
tranquil. Family cares occupied the Countess,
and in the course of her life she bore thirteen
children, nine of whom survived infancy. Yet
she also acted as a copyist for her husband,
who after their marriage turned again to writ-
ing. He was soon at work upon "a novel of
the i8io's and *2o's" which absorbed all his
time and effort. He went frequently to Mos-
cow, "studying letters, diaries, and traditions"
and "accumulated a whole library" of histori-
cal material on the period.

The years immediately following the com-
pletion of War and Peace were pa**efl in a
great variety of occupations, none of which
Tohtoy found satisfying. He tried busying



VI



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE



himself with the affairs of his estate, under-
took the learning of Greek to read the ancient
classics, turned again to education, wrote a
series of elementary school books, and served
as school inspector.

Following his conversion, Tolstoy adopted
a new mode of life. He dressed like a peasant,
devoted much of his time to manual work,
learned shoemaking, and followed a vegetari-
an diet. With the exception of his youngest
daughter, Alexandra, Tolstoy's family re-
mained hostile to his teaching. The breach be-
tween him and his wife grew steadily wider.
In 1879 he wrote the Kreutzer Sonata in which
he attacked the normal state of marriage and
extolled a life of celibacy and chastity. In 1881
he divided his estate among his heirs and, a
few years later, despite the opposition of his
wife, announced that he would forego royal-
ties on all the works published after his con-
version.

Although his activities were looked
upon with increasing suspicion by the official
authorities, Tolstoy escaped official censure
until 1901, when he was excommunicated by
the Orthodox Church. His followers were f re-
quently subjected to persecution, and many
were either banished or imprisoned.

Tolstoy's last years were embittered by
mounting hostility within his own household.
Although his personal life was ascetic, he felt
the ambiguity of his position as a preacher of
poverty living on his great estate. Finally, at
the age of eighty-two, with the aid of his daugh-
ter, Alexandra, he fled from home. His health
broke down a few days later, and he was re-
moved from the train to the station-master's
hut at Astopovo, where he died, November 7,
1910. He was buried at Yasnaya Polyana, in
the first public funeral to be held in Russia
without religious rites.

THE BEZUKHOVS

Count Cyril Bezukhov, a wealthy nobleman of Catherine the Great's time
Pierre, his son, who, legitimized after his father's death, becomes Count

Bezukhov //* central character of the novel.
Princess Caliche, Pierre's cousin

THE RosT6vs

Count Ilyd Rost6v, a wealthy nobleman

Countess Nataly Rost6va, his wife

Count Nicholas Rostov, their elder son, who goes into the army as a cadet

Count Peter (Pdtya) Rostov, their younger son

Countess Ve"ra Rost6va, their elder daughter

Countess Nataly (Natdsha) Rost6va, their younger daughter, the central

female character

S6nya, a poor niece of the Rostovs
Lieutenant Alphonse Kdrlovich Berg, an officer who marries V&ra

THE BoLK6NSKis

Prince Nicholas Andre*evich Bolk6nski, a retired general

Prince Andrew Bolk6nski, his son, a member of Kutuzov's staff

Princess Mary Bolk6nskaya, his daughter

Princess Elisabeth (Lise) Bolkonskaya, Prince Andrew's wife, "the most

fascinating woman in Petersburg"
Prince Nicholas (Koko) Andrd-evich Bolk6nski, Prince Andrew's son