The spelling of the word "being offing" may appear confusing to some, but it can be easily explained with the help of IPA phonetic transcription. The word "being" is spelled with the /b/ sound and a long /i/ sound represented by the symbol /iː/, while the word "offing" is spelled with the /ɒ/ sound and a soft /g/ represented by the symbol /dʒ/. When combined, the result is a phrase that means the distant part of the sea where the horizon appears.