I happened upon the term "offsider" in the cast list of two movies recently, "Bruce Li in New Guinea" which has Wizard's son's offsider and "The Desperate Chase" which has Kang Fu's offsider.
From the context it seems to mean something like "comrade in arms" but one who is inferior in rank, not "friend" or (in the USA) "buddy".
Is this correct and what is the derivation of the term? It sounds like a sports term but in ice hockey or football (both US and the rest of the world) offside is not something one wants to be.
Just a casual inquiry about something I hadn't noticed before.
