text: The leak of the so-called “Panama Papers,” exposing the dealings of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, has brought international attention to the shadowy “offshore” accounts that have been set up to hide wealth and avoid tax laws. But how did these secretive financial activities come to be called “offshore” in the first place?
  
  When “offshore” first came ashore in English, it was used quite literally, as an adjective or adverb referring to something, like an island, located away from the mainland. An “offshore wind” is one that moves out to sea. In his 1720 pirate tale “Captain Singleton,” Daniel Defoe mentioned winds blowing “off shore” (or “off the shore”) three different times.
  
  In the early 20th century, “offshore” began to move in less literal directions, used for things coming from or situated in another country. (The word “overseas” had already undergone a similar transformation.) The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1929 fishing industry journal, Pacific Fisherman, on the canning of “offshore tuna”—that is, tuna that is not caught domestically.
  
  After World War II, “offshore” started entering financial contexts as well. Under the Marshall Plan, the U.S. provided aid to war-torn Europe by making it easy for Europeans to purchase manufactured goods. Those goods were typically American-made, but U.S. officials were concerned about such purchases creating commodity shortages and running up prices due to inflation. Thus, the Marshall Plan also allowed for “offshore purchases” of goods from Canada and other countries, sold with American dollars.
  
  In the 1960s, “offshore” started leading a double life, used for activities that were literally conducted off the mainland, like offshore oil drilling, as well as describing more abstract entities moving abroad. A 1962 Wall Street Journal article on the Bahamas, already famous as a tax haven, pointed to the word’s new direction. The lenient tax laws of the island country facilitated the creation of many “U.S. offshore companies,” the Journal reported.
  
  As other English-speaking Caribbean islands joined in the development of “offshore” business activities, the term became enshrined more officially, with “offshore financial center” emerging as something of a euphemism for “tax haven” starting in the 1970s.
  
  As the word “offshore” gained popularity, it spread to other parts of speech. Since the 1980s, it has been used as a verb for moving business operations overseas. “Offshoring” is often conflated with “outsourcing,” though technically speaking, “outsourcing” doesn’t require sending jobs or services out of the country as “offshoring” does. Domestic outsourcing is often called “onshoring.”
  
  The flurry of news around the Panama Papers scandal reveals how “offshore” has turned into a noun as well, as an elliptical version of “offshore account.” The McClatchy news service, for instance, has run headlines this week like “Have an offshore? Maybe you’re feeling indigestion.” With the Mossack Fonseca revelations, “offshores” have suddenly become on-topic.
summary: In the wake of the Panama Papers, a look at the evolution of the word “offshore.”