English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I found the term off used in the following way (technical document):
... a total of two (2 off) Single radio channels ...
While the meaning seems pretty clear, I'd like to know what off stands for in such a context. I supposed it could be an acronym, but could not find any references.
In this construction, off is redundant in meaning.
It is not an acronym.
It is occasionally used in specifications or ordering, after a number, to indicate that the quantity is of single items, not dozens, pairs, hundreds, etc. By doing this, the format n+multiplier+description is always satisfied, even when the multiplier is 1, so the reader knows that it isn't missing.
I believe it is less common in English now than 40-50 years ago, but is still used in other languages e.g. Swedish stycken (abbr. st.). It may have crept into your technical document as a translation, or by an author being more familiar with usage in another language.
The OED says (s.v. off, adv., prep., n.1, and adj.:)
12 Used with a preceding numeral to represent a quantity in production or manufacture, or an item or number of items so produced. Usu. as one off: see one-off n. Cf. once-off adj. and n. at once adv., conj., adj., and n. Special uses 2.
with citations from 1934. "Kienzle printers. 6 off, surplus to manufacturing requirements." is an example from 1973
