of
ʌv
Cut off, yet still attached
The picture A piece is broken off a bigger lump, and the lump comes trailing after it, hanging on like a thread. OFF snaps the thread and leaves; OF takes the piece away with the thread still attached.
Where the picture shows up in of
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a part still on the whole
The top of the page is blank.
ðə tɑːp ʌv ðə peɪdʒ ɪz blæŋk
Nothing is printed on the top strip of the page.
A finger rings off the top strip of a sheet, and the strip stays joined to the sheet.
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a portion scooped out
A cup of coffee, please.
ə kʌp ʌv ˈkɔːfi pliːz
One cup's worth of coffee, please.
Exactly one cupful is ladled out of a large vat and poured into the cup.
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a thread running from a person
He's a friend of my brother.
hiːz ə frend ʌv maɪ ˈbrʌðər
He and my older brother are friends.
A single taut thread runs between the two people.
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the slab it was cut from
The handle is made of glass.
ðə ˈhændl ɪz meɪd ʌv ɡlæs
Glass is the material the handle was cut out of.
The shape of the handle is carved straight out of a large block of glass.
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a thread running from a subject
I've never heard of that company.
aɪv ˈnevər hɜːrd ʌv ðæt ˈkʌmpəni
That company's name has never once reached my ears.
A thread should run from that company to your ear, but it was never joined at all.
All of it in one picture
OF is a piece with a thread still tied to the lump it came from. Take it off a page and you get a part; scoop it out of a vat and you get a portion. Run the thread from a person and you get a relationship, cut the shape out of a slab of material and you get what it is made of, let the thread run from a subject and you get what the talk is about. Wherever OF appears, the original lump is dangling behind.