"offshore" as preposition?

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 3:44 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
> On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 1:34 AM, Pat O'Conner wrote:
>>
>> My husband (Stewart Kellerman) and I wrote a post about the
>> prepositional use of "offshore" May 9  for our blog, Grammarphobia.com.
>> It notes that according to the OED and M-W Collegiate, the prepositional
>> use is fairly recent, dating from the mid-1960's.
>> Link: http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/05/offshore-of.html
>
> A bit earlier...
>
> 1961 Leon Wolff _Little Brown Brother_ 39 What with Dewey in the
> Orient grimly preparing for war, and the _Maine_ resting at anchor
> offshore Havana, one might assume that things had gone from bad to
> worse.
>
> 1961 _Ibid._ 57 The Spanish fleet was not sighted offshore Manila, and
> the Americans turned westward toward Cavite.
>
> 1961 _Ibid._ 106 For eight endless days, unable to debark, his
> expedition sat offshore the Tambo beach.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=hHzvx94oiUgC

Snippet view, but it seems to check out:

1955 _Gas Age_ 29 Dec. 37 The Offshore Gathering Corporation, with
headquarters in Houston, Texas, announced through its President, Mr.
David C. Bintliff, that the company has filed an application with the
FPC for a certificate of necessity to build a submarine gas pipe line
offshore the Coast of Louisiana from the Sabine River to the coast of
the state of Mississippi.

http://books.google.com/books?id=K-NQAAAAYAAJ

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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