Re: How friggin' tough could it be to just print the words?
I haven't been able to find a reason for that in the English speaking world but the roots go back to Germanic and are antonyms - on is to, towards, into, part of and off is away from, out of, not part of, from.
One of the earliest uses I can find is related to archery and combat - on target and off target. In an electrical sense I suppose it follows the gas sense or the water sense though there may be some rational thought behind this as for water and gas taps you would refer to them as open or closed, which for electricity is the reverse of the intent - closed contacts conduct and activate but closed taps block flow and deactivate. The flow of electricity is often likened to the flow of water and so it seems that in early demonstrations it may have been confusing to say "I close the contact bar and the electricity flows like water".
But I wasn't there, so.., guesswork.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
