沒準備就出手
這一組直接站在核心畫面上：東西沒先拿在手上。形容詞看的是那句話，副詞看的是那個回答。
adjective · B2
Said or done on the spot, without thinking it through or planning it first, and often without much care about how it will land on the person who hears it.
隨口的、沒多想的
核心畫面
You can picture offhand as something that was never taken in hand first. Nothing was picked up, checked, or held ready before it was used; it simply left the person as it came. Two roads lead out of that picture. One is about where the words came from: nothing was prepared, so the remark is and the answer is . The other is about what the other person feels: because no care went in, they hear someone who could not be bothered with them.
offhand 可以想成「東西沒先拿在手上」。話還沒在心裡握過一遍，就已經出口了；資料也沒先翻開來看過，就直接回答了…更多收起
offhand 可以想成「東西沒先拿在手上」。話還沒在心裡握過一遍，就已經出口了；資料也沒先翻開來看過，就直接回答了。從這張圖往外走有兩條路。一條講「話是怎麼產生的」：沒有準備，所以是隨口說、當場答。另一條講「聽起來像什麼」：因為沒花心思，對方就覺得你懶得理他。同一個畫面，一邊看的是話，一邊看的是人。From the word’s history
Wiktionary traces offhand back to Middle English *ofhande and Old English ofhende, meaning absent or lost, from Proto-Germanic *abahandijaz, and says the modern word was re-formed as off- plus hand. So the not-in-hand picture is at least how the word was rebuilt, even though the old form only carried the idea of being away.
維基詞典把 offhand 追到中古英語 *ofhande、古英語 ofhende（不在、失去），再往上到原始日耳曼語，並說現代這個字是照 off- 加 hand 重新組起來的。所以「不在手上」這個畫面，至少符合它被重新拼起來時的想法。但古早那個形式只表示「離開」，沒有現在「沒準備」的意思，這條線當線索就好，不要當成證據。
Wiktionary 'offhand' (kaikki extract): from Middle English *ofhande, *ofhende, from Old English ofhende (absent, lost), from Proto-Germanic *abahandijaz; equivalent to and re-formed as off- + hand.
Two branches
沒把對方放在心上
一樣是沒花心思，但這次箭頭指向人。沒有把對方好好接在手上，對方就感覺被打發了。朗文把這個用法標成英式英文。
adjective · B2
Speaking to someone in a short, cool way that makes you seem not very interested in them or in what they are saying.
態度冷淡的、敷衍的