Off the Cuff

The standard explanation is that speakers used to scribble last-minute notes on their shirt cuffs, glancing down at them discreetly while appearing to speak entirely from memory. It's a charming image, and the phrase does date from the 1930s in American usage. But some language historians are openly sceptical that this was ever a widespread real habit rather than a colourful guess at what the phrase "must" mean, and the earliest known use, from a 1922 California newspaper describing a film shot "off the cuff," is about improvised filmmaking, not public speaking at all.