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stranger
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stranger
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Why do bombs, alarms, flashbulbs and the like "go off" instead of on?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Aren't those all items you have to set (on) in order to make it go off?
I mean the alarm cannot be on and go off at the same time.
(or something like that)eh.. I mean , there has to be an 'on' and an 'off' to keep things clear.
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old hand
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old hand
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Perhaps the same off as the start of a horse race ("They're off!") or "We're off to see the wizard": performing a designated function or mission?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Or when someone starts to rage at another, its: "Going off".
----please, draw me a sheep----
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addict
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addict
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Or when someone starts to rage at another, its: "Going off". I suspect this evolved from the bomb/alarm/flashbulb usage.
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addict
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addict
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I was told years ago that the use of phrases involving a preposition at their end is largely an assimilation of Black American slang from the early part of the 20th Century. Bombs detonate or explode, they don't "go off." Likewise, buildings don't "burn up" or "burn down:" they simply burn, or they may burn completely, or they may be razed by fire. Alarms are armed or disarmed, activated or deactivated, or simply set. If they actually sound an alarm, they've been triggered or they sound. Almost all thoughts that are commonly expressed with these upside-down "prepositional phrases" can be expressed using other words or phrases that we seldom hear any longer. I might be completely wrong about whence these sloppy (and often incomprehensible) expressions came - hopefully one of our linguists will add to this thread, because I've always been curious about this myself.
"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
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member
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member
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I might be completely wrong about whence these sloppy (and often incomprehensible) expressions came - hopefully one of our linguists will add to this thread, because I've always been curious about this myself. It's a feature of Germanic languages; German does it too. Wait... incomprehensible? What's incomprehensible about go off, burn up, burn down?
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: May 2010
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Othello says: I should make very forges of my cheeks,
That would to cinders burn up modesty,
Did I but speak thy deeds.
Helena (All's Well That Ends Well):
Bless our poor virginity from underminers and
blowers up! Is there no military policy, how
virgins might blow up men?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
I was told years ago that the use of phrases involving a preposition at their end is largely an assimilation of Black American slang from the early part of the 20th Century. Bombs detonate or explode, they don't "go off." Likewise, buildings don't "burn up" or "burn down:" they simply burn, or they may burn completely, or they may be razed by fire. Alarms are armed or disarmed, activated or deactivated, or simply set.
This is preposterous. The use of verbal particles (prepositions, preverbs, what have you) has been a part of English for at least a 1000 years. In fact most of the Germanic languages have them.
An example from Middle English cited in the OED2: "c1305 in E.E.P. (1862) 4 že fire sal berne vp sinful man žat haž misdo."
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think so too. A house can burn and when the fire is put out in time it will not burn down. When a cigar is getting towards its end it is almost burned up. When a person has lost all taste of working you call it a burn out. ( We call it the person is burned up ) Only Jeeves would ask: "Is the alarm armed?" Ordinary people ask: "Is the alarm on?" And so 'For be fire sal berne vup sinful man pat hap misdo' 
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