Pages

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Jargonwatch: Cover Off, On

In my corporate workplace, I am starting to hear the phrase "cover off on" to mean, well, "cover".  Examples:
  • Can I call you to cover off on a few things?  
  • Do we have anything else to cover off on before we adjourn?
So not one, but two, superfluous prepositions.

I did a quick search, was surprised to find nothing on this usage. What I did find were complaints (1, 2) about "cover off"--which, I agree, is itself objectionable. One of the proposed etymologies was a mental combining of "can we cover this topic" [so] "I can check it off my list". I think that is a stretch.

1 comment:

  1. Ewww! Never heard this one, hope I never do. Truly egregious.

    ReplyDelete