"offshore" as preposition?

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 1:34 AM, Mailbox <mailbox at grammarphobia.com> 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
> Pat O'Conner

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

--bgz

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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org