| 词组 | offhand, offhanded, offhandedly |
| 释义 | offhand, offhanded, offhandedly Offhand has been in use as both an adjective and adverb for about 300 years. It is an older word and a shorter word than offhanded and offhandedly, and has therefore been preferred to one or both of them by a few usage commentators from the time of Utter 1916. About offhanded there is little to be said except that it is a standard word which was first recorded in 1835 and is used in much the same way as offhand, but is less common: • ... with offhanded humor and the intimate ironies of Yiddish inflections —Lincoln Caplan, Saturday Rev., 15 Oct. 1977 • ... an offhanded way with plot and structure — Richard Locke, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 21 May 1978 The adverb offhandedly, however, is quite distinct from the adverb offhand. The most common adverbial use of offhand is as a sentence modifier which basically means "without premeditation or preparation": • Offhand, this would not seem too far-fetched — Commonweal, 9 Oct. 1970 • Offhand, I'd say that there will be at least nine starters —Audax Minor, New Yorker, 5 June 1971 • ... but, offhand, this particular pair wouldn't have been my first choice —Max Lerner, Saturday Rev., 29 May 1976 Offhandedly is never used in this way. It also differs from offhand in that it can modify adjectives (offhand cannot), it is sometimes modified by other adverbs (offhand never is), and it almost always means "casually" (offhand rarely does): • As Kagan somewhat offhandedly sums up a portion of the findings —Anne Bernays, Atlantic, March 1970 • ... the off-handedly monotonous renderings of Auden—Times Literary Supp., 16 July 1971 • ... imperturbably snobbish and offhandedly puncturing —John Simon, New York, 1 Nov. 1971 • ... said it so offhandedly that one would think there was nothing particularly spooky —Robert F. Jones, Sports Illustrated, 1 June 1981 Note that offhand could not be used idiomatically in any of these passages. Summary: The adjective offhanded is a relatively uncommon synonym of offhand. It is standard and respectable, but can easily be replaced by the shorter word if you want it to. The adverb offhandedly, however, is common, useful, and distinct from the adverb offhand. If anyone tells you to replace offhandedly with offhand, pay no attention. |
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