"D'oh!" moments in etymological understanding

[HareBrain]

T'other day I was doing Mum's garden with my sister, who was talking about her plans for the raspberries and used the phrase "come to fruition".

"Oh!" she said, her eyes bright with the sudden joy that accompanies a revelation that makes sense of the chaos of the world. "That must be related to 'fruit'!"

It was all I could do not to reply, "Well, duh!"

But then, this morning, I thought of the phrase "dicing with death" and I realised it had nothing to do with "slicing and dicing" or chopping vegetables, as I had (without really thinking about it) always sort-of assumed, and which made no sense at all, but from playing dice with Death, something probably already obvious to pretty much everyone else.

Anyway, at the risk of starting the most unreplied-to thread in history, does anyone else remember making similar sudden and gratifying connections?

 

[tinkerdan]

I was going to respond to this but then had a sudden revelation::

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Yes. now I understand.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Well, I was (sadly) very pleased with myself many-many years ago when I figured out the true meaning of 'breakfast' by splitting the one word into two (I will say I was most likely between the ages of 10 and 20, and had just never thought of the subject before).

I am sure there must be many others, and should I think of them I shall write them up here! In the meanwhile, I think it's a great topic for a thread.

('Brunch', thankfully, posed no problems for my young, inexperienced brain! )

 

[HareBrain]

I've remembered something similar from my primary school days.

Brits of a certain age will no doubt recall the Thames TV ident of the composite view of the river showing Tower Bridge, St Paul's, etc, and the word "Thames" (appropriately enough). I'd absorbed this image and its accompanying fanfare through thousands of viewings without mentally examining it or thinking what that strange word might mean. Then, one day at school, a friend of mine was talking about something on TV and mentioned the ident and called it "thames", pronouncing the "th" as in "thin" and making it rhyme with "shames". And in a flash of inspiration, it suddenly occurred to me, somehow, that in fact this strange word was how you spelled the name of the river! Which I had heard of.

God, I was delighted with myself. But instead of turning to my friend and saying "Ooh, you know what? I thought it was pronounced the same until three seconds ago, but I've just realised ..." like a normal, pleasant child would have done, I said, "It's temms!", and basically called him a fool for making such a crass mistake and for not possessing knowledge that surely every other child but him had been implanted with in the womb. Horrible.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I was confused as a child because
Fish burgers : Fish cake in bap
Chicken Burger : Chicken in a bap
Hamburger : Not made of pig.
Iced Duck : Not made of Bird. Just bread like.

Norn Iron Baps and USA Rolls are buns here, which I find confusing as a bun to me is what Americans call a Cup Cake.
A roll here is a sub in USA I think.
Except a Sausage roll is a pig in a blanket (pastry) and not bread. A Sausage in bread roll was always a "finger roll".
A muffin is a smaller English bap, not as large as a Norn Iron Bap, which the USAinans call an English Muffin. Today shops here sell USA muffins which are Buns.

You don't know the true meaning of Breakfast unless you have camped overnight just off the the Beach on Co. Antrim coast and then had an Ulster Fry. Fried brown Soda Bread, Fried White Pan, Fried Soda farls (called Griddle Cakes here), fried potato farls, fried bacon, fried sausages, fried egg, fried white pudding, fried black pudding and fried tomatoes.
Personally I only eat the Breads toasted, raw fresh tomato, grilled bacon & sausage. Only the White pudding fried (it's Oats, Pork and Pork fat and some herbs, I don't touch Black pudding as it is soaked in pig's blood).

Some people add fried liver, fried treacle farls and fried Mushrooms. But that's Aristocrat's food.

 

[The Ace]

Black pudding IS blood.