Why have people started saying 'off of'?

[TheOriginalBanshee]

It really annoys me when people say 'x off of Manchester' or 'y off of cbeebies'. Where has this come from and why? I've even seen this in our local newspaper as a comment from someone being interviewed by a journalist and people on the radio (radio 1) are always saying 'off of'! Am I missing something? Is this now an acceptable way to describe where someone comes from?

dunno. i remember Scott Mills off of from radio one used that term years ago, it was a little bit funny for a split second.

but the word 'of' lately is overused. Why do people say 'of' instead of 'have' as in "he must of..." makes my bum squinch.

I don't know - I have always said it. Never really thought about it.

• Please get off of my knee.

• It's her off of whatsit.

• Did you get that off of Fred?

I agree the 'of' isn't required, but when it's the way you have always said something you don't really think about it. Bigger fish to fry

I think the should of/have comes from people hearing 'should of' when what has been said is 'should've' and then it has been passed down as 'should of'.

I saw something on here the other day and it took me a few minutes to work out what they really meant - they wrote 'acception' when what they meant was exception. People hear words then use them the way they have heard them and sometimes they make mistakes - such is life, it wont kill any of us.

I do this too, 'him offuv doobry', doesn't bother me.
'Should of' gives me facial tics.

I know someone who always says "I said I went" every time she relates a conversation. Makes me cringe.

Agree re: Scott Mills. He still does it.

I'm far too old to listen to Radio 1. [hblush]

Scott Mills doing it on Radio 1 is the reason I can't listen to him. Well, that and the rest of his pointless "chit-chat". It used to make me very angry. The BBC encouraging such poor English. In fact, thinking about it is making me cross again!

oh i know! so annoying!
I have a 9year old friend who was here in the shop yesterday, and he kept telling his brother "get off of the chair" and I had to keep going "off the chair"

I hope it's not a "lost cause"

Scott Mills.

I do it to wind my DP up. He' has a phd in computational linguistics so it drives him mad. I tried saying it to Siri and he didn't understand me :(