Where does the term one-off come from? Among British foundry workers in the 1950s, the number of units produced from a given mold was designated with the word off. So if twenty widgets came off the line, you’d call that batch a twenty-off. A one-off, in turn, refers to a one-of-a-kind object, such as a prototype model. And although Kingsley Amis once called the term an American abomination, make no mistake: We have the UK to thank for one-off. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “One-Off”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi.
Hi, who is this?
This is Sharon Merriman.
Hi, Sharon, where are you calling from?
I’m calling from Indianapolis, Indiana.
Welcome to the show.
Welcome, Sharon.
What can we help you with?
Thank you.
Well, I need to know the derivation or the source of the expression one-off.
One-off.
O-F-F.
Mm—
Now, we all know what one-of-a-kind is.
But one-off appears to be used in the same way, but I’m trying to figure out exactly how it got there.
Now, Sharon, what made you think about this one?
We had a church board meeting, and towards the end of the meeting, which had gone quite late, someone made the comment about someone who wasn’t there that he is one-off.
And we all knew what the speaker meant, but we got into the conversation of, gee, where’d that come from?
And everyone, almost in accord, said, well, somebody has to call.
You have A Way with Words.
I guess we all listened.
And I didn’t exactly get nominated.
I nominated myself to call.
A bold leader, a leader of people.
That’s right.
Somebody seconded the motion, and so you’re asking on behalf of your board what one-off means.
Exactly.
Yeah, well, it goes back to the language of manufacturing, and particularly foundries in Britain in the 1930s.
Because in Britain, they would use the expression off to designate the number of things being produced in this foundry.
Like if you would cast, say, a tool or something, if you would cast 20 of them from a mold, you would cast 20 off.
Or 500 of them, you’d cast 500 off.
And so if you have a one-off, then it’s just one single instance of casting something off of a mold.
It is unique. There are no more like it. A prototype, perhaps.
Yeah, they broke the mold when they made that guy.
Okay.
And so it left the foundry business and showed up in everyday English and then came across the pond to us.
Well, that is very interesting. I did have the opportunity to live in England for a couple of years.
Never heard the expression used over there.
Interesting, because it is more common over there.
Yeah, and it was rare enough, though, for a while in the U.K. that the well-known writer Kingsley Amos actually thought it was an Americanism and called it out as an abomination at one point.
But it actually does come from the U.K.
Okay, so one-off comes from manufacturing, and it means something that is unique because it isn’t part of the run of the manufacturing run.
Yeah, it’s a run of one.
They made just one.
Yeah, if they made six of them, it’d be six off, 20, 20 off.
Oh, I can hardly wait to go to my next board meeting.
Call an emergency meeting, quick.
Well, we could do that.
Well, tell them all hello for us, Sharon.
Yeah, thanks for calling, Sharon.
They certainly will, and they all knew immediately where we should go to get the source.
Valuable information.
Absolutely.
What church is this?
It’s All Souls Unitarian Church in Indianapolis.
All right.
Well, tell them hello at All Souls for us, okay?
Thank you very much.
I certainly shall.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye, Sharon.
Bye.
Well, if something comes up at your board meeting and you can’t figure it out, you can always call us at 877-929-9673 or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
