Language evolution is happening right in plain sight. “Off-site” and “on-site” are in the process of becoming “offsite” and “onsite.” And they’re adding “noun” to their parts of speech as well.
That’s because people are using their own logic instead of dictionaries.
Right now, nearly every dictionary says “off-site” and “on-site” take hyphens. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition, is alone of the major dictionaries in allowing “offsite” and “onsite.”
But if you look online (which started out as “on line,” moved swiftly to “on-line,” and even faster to “online”), you’ll see “onsite” and “offsite” popping up more frequently. After all, we have “onstage,” “offshore,” and many other words that have lost their hyphens. (Of course, we also have “off-key,” “on-screen,” and others that still have them, most of the time.)
This evolution is apparent in the Associated Press Stylebook. Now, it has entries for both “off-site” and “on-site.” But its “Ask the Editor” online archive shows an answer from 2008 calling for “Two words for storage on site, and hyphenated as a compound modifier preceding the noun, on-site storage.” But it also had an “offsite” entry until 2009, when “Ask the Editors” questioners pointed out the inconsistency.
All the dictionaries are unanimous that both words are only adjectives (“We are having an off-site meeting”) or adverbs (“We are having a meeting on-site”). In other words, you can’t have an “off-site” without another noun coming along. But people ignore that, too, and have “offsites.” That’s a language “offside,” for now, at least.
