The fire alarm went off的含义

圣诞节和元旦期间,做了公寓的student warden,今天突然接到了一个电话,说检测到火警警报,让我去查看。
虽然当时能理解工作人员意思,都Fire alarm了,肯定是火警啊,后来仔细想想怎么都无法理解为什么off代表着
后来在LEARN ENGLISH WITH DEMI2015年的一个文章中找到了答案:

An alarm system is usually set, so you need something to trigger it.
When it is triggered, it has offset, so you say it has gone off.
It’s the trigger that has gone off. It’s not the word , as in the opposite of on.

原来off的原意是offset,疑惑消失了,所以记录一下,也算是一个冷知识吧。

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