Origin and history of write-off

by c. 1200 as an emphatic form of Old English of (see of), employed in the adverbial use of that word. The prepositional meaning "away from" and the adjectival sense of "farther" were not firmly fixed in this variant until 17c., but once they were they left the original of with the transferred and weakened senses of the word. Meaning "not working" is from 1861.

Off the cuff "extemporaneously, without preparation" (1938) is from the notion of speaking from notes written in haste on one's shirt cuffs. In reference to clothing, off the rack (adj.) "not tailored, not made to individual requirements, ready-made" is by 1963, on the notion of buying it from the rack of a clothing store; off the record "not to be publicly disclosed" is from 1933; off the wall "crazy" is 1968, probably from the notion of a lunatic "bouncing off the walls" or else in reference to carom shots in squash, handball, etc.

Old English writan "to score, outline, draw the figure of," later "to set down in writing, be acquainted with the craft of letters, set forth as an author" (class I strong verb; past tense wrat, past participle writen).

This is from Proto-Germanic *writan "tear, scratch," which also is the source of Old Frisian writa "to write," Old Saxon writan "to tear, scratch, write," Old Norse rita "write, scratch, outline," Old High German rizan "to write, scratch, tear," German reißen "to tear, pull, tug, sketch, draw, design"). Outside connections are doubtful.

According to Buck, words for "write" in most Indo-European languages originally mean "carve, scratch, cut" (such as Latin scribere, Greek graphein, glyphein, Sanskrit rikh-); a few originally meant "paint" (Gothic meljan, Old Church Slavonic pisati, and most of the modern Slavic cognates).

In English, the meaning "exchange letters" is by mid-14c.; that of "communicate in writing" is by c. 1400.

To be writ large (1640s) is literally to be formed in large, prominent letters, but the use is chiefly figurative. To write over is by 1580s as "write anew or again," by 1828 as "cover (a surface) with writing."

For men use to write an evill turne in marble stone, but a good turne in the dust. [More, 1513]

On the dismissive side, writerling "petty, sorry, or inferior writer" is by 1802; writation "poor or insipid writing" by 1778; writative "disposed or addicted to writing" by 1736.