Annoying spelling, galling grammar, irksome words, frustrating phrases

[farntfar]

Another interesting mis-phrasing of the "I could give a damn" type.

I was just watching Jimmy Kimmel talking about the Stormy Daniels trial, when he spoke of someone "jumping on the bandit wagon"

 

[HareBrain]

I was just watching Jimmy Kimmel talking about the Stormy Daniels trial, when he spoke of someone "jumping on the bandit wagon"

Might that have been a deliberate mis-phrasing, given the context?

Even if not, there are several phrases that people misspeak but which still make sense in their new form. I was thinking of one only yesterday but now, of course, it's nowhere to be found in my brain.

 

[Danny McG]

Might that have been a deliberate mis-phrasing, given the context?

Even if not, there are several phrases that people misspeak but which still make sense in their new form. I was thinking of one only yesterday but now, of course, it's nowhere to be found in my brain.

I heard one last week that made a weird kind of sense.
Somebody was trying to say "we're up the (or sh*t!) creek without a paddle"
However he instead said "we're up the creek without a yacht"

 

[Alex The G and T]

"The morning after the night before". I've just heard this applied to today, being the morning after last night's election debate. But what was that election debate the "night before" of? NOTHING! So stop using it.

I think it might have had an actual application, but if so, it has probably been used that way less than 1% of the time.

I've usually heard this to describe a hangover. And/or the condition of the house after a party.

 

[HareBrain]

I've usually heard this to describe a hangover. And/or the condition of the house after a party.

But then what is "the night before"? Before what? The phrase suggests that the most significant thing is going to happen in the small hours.

Otherwise it would just be "the morning after".

 

[Alex The G and T]

But then what is "the night before"? Before what? The phrase suggests that the most significant thing is going to happen in the small hours.

Otherwise it would just be "the morning after".

The phrase implies that one is paying for the previous night's antics. The morning that arrived after that sh*t that went down the night before the hangover arrived.

It's a cute idiom designed to baffle the be-jeesus out of literalists.

 

[HareBrain]

The phrase implies that one is paying for the previous night's antics.

OK, I guess that does make sense. I still feel justified in complaining about its use relating to an election debate.

It's a cute idiom designed to baffle the be-jeesus out of literalists.

 

[Parson]

One that I'm hearing more and more lately is "You can't understate the importance ...." when they mean that something is of vast importance. So the proper usage would be "You can't overstate the importance...". Of course to my ear whenever someone says you "can't do something" I wonder if there's any chance that it could be done.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Talking of corrupted sayings, how about:
The proof is in the pudding

What does that mean? Does anybody stop to think what they are saying?

I know it's a corruption of 'The proof of the pudding is in the eating', and I could maybe understand the shortening to 'The proof of the pudding' or 'The proof is in the eating' but how did it get corrupted to that...

 

[dask]

I’m probably alone in this but for reasons I cannot zero in on I do not like people standing “with arms akimbo.”

 

[Wayne Mack]

I suggest that the correct phrase is "I don't care." If you really parse the meaning of "I couldn't care less" and "I could care less," both merely reflect the possibility of changing one's level of caring; neither indicates the current level of care.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Further musing on the 'couldn't care less'/'could care less' battle
There are other phrases meaning how much you don't care, but you never hear the non-negative (Well I haven't)
- I don't give two hoots / a fig / a rat's a***
versus
- I do give two hoots / a fig / a rat's a***

 

[HareBrain]

If you really parse the meaning of "I couldn't care less" and "I could care less," both merely reflect the possibility of changing one's level of caring; neither indicates the current level of care.

Surely "I couldn't care less" indicates that the current level of care is zero? (Assuming levels of care cannot be negative.) I agree that in terms of meaning, it adds nothing to "I don't care".

 

[Phyrebrat]

I’ll die on the hill that “I could care less” is illogical and laughable on the same level of saying ‘irregardless’ IMSO

 

[paranoid marvin]

I'll go to the foot of our stairs, anyone?

 

[Ursa major]

I'll go to the foot of our stairs, anyone?

Wouldn't you agree that, if one wanted the most humourous version of the above, "Well, I'll go to the foot of my sock" is a shoo-in.

 

[farntfar]

Well I'll be a suck-egg mule.

 

[paranoid marvin]

And I'm a monkey's uncle.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Might that have been a deliberate mis-phrasing, given the context?

Or even, possibly, a 'joke'?

 

[Wayne Mack]

Surely "I couldn't care less" indicates that the current level of care is zero?

Consider the case where someone is very concerned about an issue and is not willing to reduce his or her level of concern. Surely, that person "couldn't care less;" that person is unwilling to show less concern. The statement relies on interpretation to determine why one's level of concern cannot be reduced.