Headline of a Tuesday Boston Globe editorial:
Craigslist should give up its lucrative ‘adult services’
It was the pull quote, though, that really stood out:
The site is, at the end of the day, profiting off of prostitution.
Really? Not “profiting from prostitution,” which has both a better rhythm and a better sound?
No – because off of is the new off.
Plug “off of” into the Googletron and you get 42,600,000 results, the first of which is this from AnswerBag:
Is it bad grammar to use ‘off of’ anywhere within a sentence?
The answer is yes.
And how about “I really get off on him/her”?
Yesterday, International Herald Tribune crossword 122 down – “Get your hands off me!” and I thought “vindication!”
Thanks, Steve – that brightened my day.