off-

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off-

Where it comes from

From Middle English of-, from Old English of-, æf- (“off, away, down, un-”), from Proto-Germanic *aba- (“off, away”), combining form of *ab(a), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“off, away”). Cognate with Dutch af- (“off, away, down”), German ab- (“off, from, down”), Latin ab- (“from, of”), Ancient Greek ἀπο- (apo-, “away from, without”). Doublet of apo- and ab-. Equivalent to off. Compare of.

prefix

morpheme Away from; off.
Similar: out-, ab-, apo-, de-, away, off
morpheme, of a colour not quite; almost off-white

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MLA

"off-." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/off-. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

off-. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/off-

Chicago

"off-." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/off-.

BibTeX

@misc{off_2026,
  title = {off-},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/off-},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}