based off = 'as a result of; by reason of; from'

[Mark Mandel]

Could be from "on the basis of" (which would sound quite proper),
misread/heard/remembered.

Mark


On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 5:50 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> More Yahoo! news:
>
>
> "Hawking earned his scientific reputation back in the 1970's based off his
> theory of black holes as cosmic vacuums."
>
> Of course, "based on" might have been used instead, and it would have
> sounded nearly as ignorant.
>
> To some of us.
>
> JL
>
>
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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