Congressional eggcorns: off-times, off-repeated

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On his Talking Points Memo blog, Joshua Micah Marshall reprints a letter
he received from Rep. Sherry Boehlert (R-NY).  It begins:

    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/004681.php
    Enjoyed your clever and off-times amusing comments.

Marshall doesn't comment on Boehlert's use of "off-times" (he's more
concerned with Boehlert's position on Bush's Social Security plan).  But I
thought this was an interesting eggcorn from on high.

Surely "off-times" makes perfect sense as a pronunciation spelling for
"oft-times", simplifying the geminate /tt/ as is common for most American
speakers (MWCD marks the first /t/ as optional).

Semantically, however, the reanalysis is a bit more puzzling to me. I
would think that replacing the archaic/poetic "oft" element with the more
common "off" might alter the sense somewhat -- from 'frequently' to
'occasionally' or 'intermittently' (evoking not just the hiatal sense of
"off-time" but also "off-and-on", "on again, off again", etc.).

A Google search on <offtimes> doesn't really bear out my hunch, though
perhaps one could discern a subtle semantic shift going on:

-----
I offtimes did just that! ... Offtimes, Nannie read to us.
http://www.yerwoodcenter.org/images/Joyce%20Yerwood%20Letter%20to%20Sister%20NOSTALGIA.doc
-----
It appears that I don't write offtimes to you My Mollie, my dear girl.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/7305/head.htm -
-----
This is offtimes the fault of incorrectly using a DataReader which
requires manual connection handling.
http://www.error-bank.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.adonet/74399_Thread.aspx
-----
Big Valley Aviation was started over 27 years ago to address the offtimes
specialized and unique maintenance and overhaul needs of regional
helicopters.
http://www.bigvalleyaviation.com/
-----
The God associated with youthfulness, he is offtimes conflated with Pryderi.
http://www.fatheroak.com/deities2.html
-----
The game sounds offtimes make you jump out of your chair, or drop your mouse.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ doom3/reader_review.html?id=1987015
-----

There are hundreds more examples for "off(-)times" with or without the
hyphen.  And it appears that "off-" is replacing "oft-" in other compounds
where no geminate /tt/ is involved, such as "oft-repeated" >
"off-repeated" or "oft-quoted" > "off-quoted".  Googling on <the
off-repeated> turns up 112 examples, and the first page has yet another
eggcorn from the halls of Congress...

-----
http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/releases/2002_03_20_cfr_final.html
Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) credited Senator Cantwell for playing a
leadership role in passing the legislation. "One of our newest members,
Senator Maria Cantwell, also gave us important momentum when she made
campaign finance reform a central issue in her campaign and gave this bill
her strong support," Feingold said. "After her victory, the off-repeated
claim that no Senator has ever lost an election over this issue can no
longer be made."
-----


--Ben Zimmer