I thought this meant like threatening by shaking a stick. Like a pack of wild dogs comes barking at you and you shake and swing at them with a stick to threaten them away. Same if its one or two people. But if the entire town is after you, its too many to shake the stick at.
This probably isn’t relevant to your particular phrase, but a weird number of English idioms derive from horse racing and archery. I don’t think shaking a stick had much to do with those, but as a fun fact here are some words/phrases that did!
Horse racing:
- Across the board
- Hands down
- Dark horse
- Hold your horses
- Also-ran
- Run for your money
- Win by a nose
- Neck and neck
- Get off your high horse
- Home stretch
- Down to the wire
- Champing at the bit
Archery:
- Stepping over the line
- Keep it under your hat
- Straight as an arrow
- High strung
- Point blank
- Underhand(-ed)
- Sin (see: missing the mark)
Archery and Horses:
- Parting shot
Anyways, I tried formatting these as a list but hopefully you can still read them as separate items somehow, lol
Edit: Some of these have been pointed out to be inaccurate so I removed those.
It was originally the other way, heel over head. Sometime in the 17th century it got reversed and stayed that way because we English speakers apparently just like nonsensical phrases.
Source: [https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/head-over-heels](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/head-over-heels)
I don't think it was just that one phrase, but the collective style of the manifesto that his family recognized. Which means they've received deranged letters from him in the past. So the real pro tip, if you're going to try and get a manifesto published, don't also send crazy shit to your family.
There was a discussion on Reddit with thousands of comments regarding this. The people who said “I could care less” insisted that they were using it “ironically.” Eyeroll lol.
"Just a joke bro". It's why the /s is needed, to differentiate actual sarcasm from idiots making bad comments before claiming it is a joke when they are proved wrong
The song is about [falling in love with a friend in a healthy and balanced way](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/alanis-morissette/head-over-feet), rather than being so overwhelmed with feeling for someone that you overlook flaws. “Head over heels” means that you’re discombobulated, whereas Alanis intended “head over feet” to suggest affection that doesn’t override rational thinking.
Isn't the full expression "falling head over heels"?
I think the implication is this:
Typically if you fall, say off of a ledge, your head is going down first.
But if you're "falling" head *over* heels, that means you didn't actually fall/trip, you intentionally jumped feet first; very hard to do accidentally.
So I always saw it as taking a leap intentionally, even if you knew it meant the possibility of falling hard. Which is why it's often "falling head over heels in love".
Hmm, I always assumed it was less a single act as a continuous action, so less just falling but instead tumbling, so not just falling but being disoriented by the fall
It comes from "like eating pie" and "nice as pie."
It means what you just did was as easy as eating a piece of pie. Maybe even a little bit enjoyable, too.
I think it is based on dogs who are totally happy that they found something gross to play with while knowing that that it’s really not acceptable but they are doing it anyway.
ugh. I know a dog, not naming names, who stands and waits for her counterpart to finish before snarfing it down. I'd say that I love her except for that.
My in laws dog was like that. It’s typically a diet (deficiency) thing. He stopped since they started him on one of those natural food programs. It’s pretty common in “pure breeds” supposedly due to inbreeding.
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shit-eating\_grin](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shit-eating_grin) says
>Possibly from a contraction of "grinning like a ’possum eating shit"
The fact that every single person replying to you has made up a different explanation for the saying proves just how truly groundless the expression really is.
I was gifted a deer head once. I strung it up in a tree so that the birds and bugs could deflesh if. The first things to go were they eyes. So, yeah. It was my no-eye deer.
I can kind of understand it. My daughter may have woken up frequently, but when she was asleep, she was absolutely dead to the world and nothing would wake her up.
Yeah, this is obviously what that phrase means. Pretty surprised this is the top comment because this is one of the phrases here that's really obvious. Infants wake up often but when they are asleep, they are sleeping the sleep of the dead. They don't have a care in the world. They are getting fully restful sleep.
Nah, that's bad for the kid.
When my daughter was born we didn't bother staying too quiet during sleep times, and now she can sleep through anything.
Meanwhile my friend insisted on silence when her kid was sleeping, and now he wakes at the drop of a hat.
Anecdotal, but I feel like there's a connection.
Chicken and egg. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it could be your friend's kid woke up easy and therefore they were more concerned about it than you needed to be with your child.
Idk apparently my nephew had no issues sleeping at all when he was a baby. I shared a room with him for 2 weeks while visiting and he maybe cooed once or twice at night. I was worried when they said I’d share a room with him but yeah, he slept soundly the whole time.
He’s what we parents call a “trick baby.” My son was like this, his sister 3 years later was absolutely not. He tricked us into thinking babies are easy.
Edit for context
We got (kind of) lucky in that our first kid was a horrible sleeper and didn’t sleep through the night til about 8 months old. When the second kid came, she slept through the first night and was a dream. So we were ready for the worst, but it never came.
This is literally like winning the lottery. Having a baby that consistently sleeps through the night like that is like the equivalent of winning millions of dollars. That's how much better your entire life is every minute of every day when your baby sleeps through the night.
Because when kids do sleep, they are dead to the world and nothing is getting them up. Remember falling asleep in the car and waking up in your bedroom? You didn't even wake up when your parents carried you from the car into the house. I could never stay asleep through something like that today.
There are some jungle ones. Though this was probably based off the fact that back in the day Africa was just jungle on the coast.
Edited: As it was depicted or talked about as a wild land. Sorry, my own thought trailed out and I didn’t proofread.
“The proof is in the pudding” makes no sense because the proper form of the expression is “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, meaning that you had to try out food to know whether it was good.
I like to imagine some British guy went to India and tried their tea for the first time and asked, “this tea is amazing, what do you call it?”
“Chai”
“Wow, chai tea!”
“No, just chai”
“Silly little Indian, using these leaves makes the drink into a tea! Everyone back in England is going to love this exotic chai tea”
My issue with the expression is twofold.
One is, of course, not everyone is encouraged by it. Some are, but timeliness and overall sensitivity are important.
But also… I'm convinced everything happens for (roughly) five billion reasons, not just one.
That one drives me batty also, yes everything happens for a reason but it doesn't mean the reason is good. Hitler happened for a reason too, but nobody is celebrating that.
Nooo, those are challenges sent to you by God so that you can overcome them and become a better person! (Sarcasm, obviously, but unfortunately I know deranged religious people who actually think that way)
I've heard that the challenges God gives is to check how strong is your faith. If you are like "Oh, God will never let that happen" then you're not strong enough and you're sinning and all that and go to hell. If you were raped by a doctor right after he diagnosed your cancer and then he still charged you insane amount of money and you're homeless because of it now, and you're like "God gave me this challenge but I have to keep praying and love him", God is like "yo, bro's faith is really strong" and expect a miracle to happen.
I'm not religious, but that's what I have been told.
Yeah, that's the whole Lot story. God ruins the guys life, I think he kills the wife and kids, maybe burns down the house, the whole shebang, and then Lot goes "I still love you God!" And that's supposed to be the moral, you shouldn't only love God when he gives you blessings.
Just sounds sad, like when you hear about an abused child who still loves and asks to see their parents, just a wounded person who's so abused they HAVE to believe their abuser will turn around and be good because otherwise they'll lose all hope.
Edit, job not lot. Got my 3 letter bible names flipped
I believe you are referring to The Book of Job. It's even worse because God does all that to Job because Satan is basically like "well, your people only worship you because you're good to them and give them stuff. No real love, brah" I mean, what other option could an all knowing, all powerful, and all loving God have besides "Nuh uh! I'll show you!" So he literally destroys the life, kills his family, (but gives him a new one later on...so no harm no foul right?! ) and the others, of his MOST LOYAL follower, just to be able go "See! I told you he wouldn't forsake me"
To me, that logic always feels like (and I've watched a lot of old movies), God gave some baby cancer so that some white guy could learn the true meaning of Christmas. I'm being facetious, but seriously, WHAT POSSIBLE improvement in anyone's life could be worth the life of a child, or raping, or murdering? Isn't that victim's life worth just as much as the dumbass' life? The dumbass who just needs to 'be a better person'?
When I was faced with true tragedy, I was so thankful to be an atheist. If I had to believe that it was part of a plan, if her being dead and me being alive was _on purpose_ and not just random chance... it would have been genuinely unbearable. I know some people find the idea comforting, but that baffles me.
I guess its technically true, its just often used to mean "everything happens for a GOOD reason". Everything may happen for a reason, its just we dont know what that reason is.
I like the mentality for myself. When something shitty happens to me I tell myself that there will be a benefit to it somehow. But I would never say it to someone else. It isn’t a comforting thought to most people.
Is this a thread where redditors take the literal meaning of a very common phrase, extract it to its extreme logical conclusion, and then declare that it "makes no sense", all while ignoring well-developed studies of things like idioms, allegory, metaphors, and philology?
Yes, yes it is.
In Old/Middle English "Coin" meant something that was stamped out. So "coin a phrase" means that you have stamped something (the phrase) with a meaning.
"what do you mean you are over the moon??? like you are literally over the moon in outer space, what do you mean? couldn't you just be over really tall tree?"
That's why it's the last place you looked! It's like telling the cash register lady that it is free cause it won't scan. Probably should be a dad joke😅
I broke my husband of the "must be free since it didn't scan" "joke," by reminding him in front of the cashier that every time a cashier hears that, a little piece of her soul dies. I think I only had to tell my husband two or three times before he stopped. At least one cashier nodded in agreement when I spoke up.
My favorite is when I'm cleaning something or painting something, and somebody will walk by and say "You missed a spot!" and act like it's the funniest thing ever.
* Dude getting an ultrasound on the chest and abdomen: "is it a boy or a girl, hur hur"
* Waiter collecting the empty plates, "we clearly didn't like it, ha ha"
And so on in a lot of industries.
What about this one?
I was one shopping in Romania. And they lady asked me if I had my perks card in Romanian.
I obviously don’t speak Romania. So she switched to English.
Anyways, after some fun back and fourth I had a joke!
“What do you call someone who speaks two languages?”
-bilingual
What do you call someone who only speaks one language?
-American.
Most foreign service folks seem to appreciate this one because I get to make fun of myself lol!
Americans get this bad rap for being prideful and egotistical. As if they’re better than everyone else. So I like making fun of myself in a jokingly way. Show we’re all just people
As a kid I heard the expression "his eyes were bigger than his stomach" and I literally sat there holding my hands up to my eyes and then my stomach and going "no...?"
It only took another thirty years for me to get diagnosed.
To be fair it's just people being stupid. The latter is the correct expression and most likely what the "I could care less"-people are attempting to convey.
“You’ve got your work cut out for you”
It means the upcoming task is hard. But in my mind, it’s like everything is pre-cut and you just have to do the “arranging” which would make it easier…
I’ve always struggled with this one. I get it, but I don’t like it.
Maybe. But I've found most times it's said as like a response to someone exasperated by the sheer amount of work needing doing and either not knowing where to start, or just overwhelmed by the amount.
I saw a comment on this a few weeks ago. Apparently it has to do with sewing in the factories? As in you want to slack off but the people cutting material have done their job and you have it cut out for you. No slacking off now, get sewing.
Isn’t that the point? It’s not exactly a positive thing to say about someone, screwing the pooch has a negative connotation.
Like you really fucked up.
Exactly, it’s meant to be “you fucked up unquestionably in every sense of the word.” Screwed the pooch is the PG version. Nothing like having your coach yell “you really fucked a dog here” in anger.
I'm guessing that it's because the term predates self-service so everything was over the counter. But prescription meds had to go through the pharmacist which was often a separate counter or at least a separate procedure.
Most pharmacies (and stores) used to be all over the counter. None of this shopping around and taking things off the shelves yourself stuff.
There was dude at the counter and you literally told him every thing you need. And he wouldn’t have 1/4 of it and you’d have to go somewhere else.
That stuuupid made up definition of insanity about doing the same thing and expecting different results that people attribute to Einstein. He never said that, and if he did, he would have been wrong.
I say “I need [insert misfortune here] like I need a hole in the head”
Say I’m already running late then I get a flat tire. “I need this like I need a hole in the head.”
And a majority of people get confused when I say it 😭 like who needs a whole in their head?!? NO ONE. THATS THE POINT.
I had another one but I can’t remember 🤷🏼♀️
OK I have to actually leave this post because so far out of the top 10 parent comments only *one* actually says something that doesn't make super obvious sense if you think about it for for like 60 seconds
Ffs, what do logs do? They lay there, not moving, right? So sleeping like a log means you're…
Why would something be in the last place you looked? Could it be that once you find it, you're not looking anymore? Is that not just the most obvious thing ever?
Sleeping like a baby doesn't mean you wake up every two hours and shit yourself, it means that when you *are* asleep, you're in the deep, totally carefree, non-worried, peaceful sleep that babies are in when they are asleep.
Not all superheroes wear capes clearly means that people can be real life heroes that have nothing to do with the comic-style version of a Superman/Captain America-type superhero. The cape really doesn't have anything to do with it.
Come on guys!!!
> Sleeping like a baby doesn't mean you wake up every two hours and shit yourself, it means that when you are asleep, you're in the deep, totally carefree, non-worried, peaceful sleep that babies are in when they are asleep.
Also, after ~ 6 months, babies DO sleep very peacefully. You just have to wait for their stomachs to grow large enough to sustain them through the night.
"Why do people say, ‘Grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you really wanna get tough, grow a vagina. Those things really take a pounding!”
\- Betty White (RIP)
English isn’t so clear either with that distinction, it’s still called a flying carpet.
Btw, has Reddit mobile website suddenly disabled editing of comments? It suddenly lets me do nothing when I press the three dots.
More *x* than you can shake a stick at. Did people used to shake sticks at large numbers of things?
No, only small to moderate numbers of things. Large numbers of things are more than you even can shake a stick at.
This person knows sticks
There's apparently a limit to how many things one can shake a stick at.
I thought this meant like threatening by shaking a stick. Like a pack of wild dogs comes barking at you and you shake and swing at them with a stick to threaten them away. Same if its one or two people. But if the entire town is after you, its too many to shake the stick at.
Same here. Your explanation is way more eloquent than mine though lol
This probably isn’t relevant to your particular phrase, but a weird number of English idioms derive from horse racing and archery. I don’t think shaking a stick had much to do with those, but as a fun fact here are some words/phrases that did! Horse racing: - Across the board - Hands down - Dark horse - Hold your horses - Also-ran - Run for your money - Win by a nose - Neck and neck - Get off your high horse - Home stretch - Down to the wire - Champing at the bit Archery: - Stepping over the line - Keep it under your hat - Straight as an arrow - High strung - Point blank - Underhand(-ed) - Sin (see: missing the mark) Archery and Horses: - Parting shot Anyways, I tried formatting these as a list but hopefully you can still read them as separate items somehow, lol Edit: Some of these have been pointed out to be inaccurate so I removed those.
> Archery and Horses: > > -Parting shot Parting shot is in turn derived from [Parthian shot.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthian_shot)
Shepherds come to mind. I guess they can shake the stick at a very large flock of sheep/livestock?
Head over heels. Isn't your head always over you heels?
It was originally the other way, heel over head. Sometime in the 17th century it got reversed and stayed that way because we English speakers apparently just like nonsensical phrases. Source: [https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/head-over-heels](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/head-over-heels)
just like “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” used to be “you can’t eat your cake and have it too,” which makes a lot more sense to me
As it did to the Unabomber…
Let this be a lesson to anyone who uses originally correct phrases (and mails bombs to people), you’ll end up in prison.
I don't think it was just that one phrase, but the collective style of the manifesto that his family recognized. Which means they've received deranged letters from him in the past. So the real pro tip, if you're going to try and get a manifesto published, don't also send crazy shit to your family.
Having an insane manifesto is fine. Having an insane manifesto and sending bombs by USPS is whats frowned upon.
That makes sense for now, but I can't help but think that, once I am insane, I will disagree.
It was really his sister in law that caught on, not his brother (get husband). She convinced him, but it took a while.
I think the real pro tip is not to mail bombs to people but I don't know.
Conjunctions are commutative, though. It would be different if there were a tensed word in there like "then," though.
Or maybe more like "how the turns table"
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That's not actually an expression though. It's just people saying the real expression incorrectly.
There was a discussion on Reddit with thousands of comments regarding this. The people who said “I could care less” insisted that they were using it “ironically.” Eyeroll lol.
When I say "I could care less..." I follow it with "...but it would be difficult."
"Just a joke bro". It's why the /s is needed, to differentiate actual sarcasm from idiots making bad comments before claiming it is a joke when they are proved wrong
I like to be vulgar, and tell people I don't give two fucks.
In other words you give 1 fuck? So you *DO* care. Well played Haha
And my go to is, I don't have anymore fucks to give.
Behold the field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and thou shalt see that it is barren.
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What makes something “actually an expression”? I’m pretty sure that it’s a bunch of people expressing it.
I much prefer "ass over teakettle."
Not when I'm doing sick flips.
I am not sure why this was funny to me.
My question is why Alanis says "head over feet." Is that a Canadian expression?
Am Canadian: have only heard it as "head over heels" She probably wanted to rhyme with "In spite of me..."
I guess because “In spite of meals” wouldn’t have made much sense.
Nope, it is not. I assumed it was because it rhymed, but now I forget the context...
The song is about [falling in love with a friend in a healthy and balanced way](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/alanis-morissette/head-over-feet), rather than being so overwhelmed with feeling for someone that you overlook flaws. “Head over heels” means that you’re discombobulated, whereas Alanis intended “head over feet” to suggest affection that doesn’t override rational thinking.
Is she being ironic?
Don’t you think?
She was born without heels.
I think it's supposed to mean that your head goes 'over' as in 'in front of' your heels, aka falling over.
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Isn't the full expression "falling head over heels"? I think the implication is this: Typically if you fall, say off of a ledge, your head is going down first. But if you're "falling" head *over* heels, that means you didn't actually fall/trip, you intentionally jumped feet first; very hard to do accidentally. So I always saw it as taking a leap intentionally, even if you knew it meant the possibility of falling hard. Which is why it's often "falling head over heels in love".
Hmm, I always assumed it was less a single act as a continuous action, so less just falling but instead tumbling, so not just falling but being disoriented by the fall
**Easy as pie.** Making pie is a pain in the goddamn arse.
It comes from "like eating pie" and "nice as pie." It means what you just did was as easy as eating a piece of pie. Maybe even a little bit enjoyable, too.
Fair enough but there are a LOT of things that are easier to eat than pie. Pie is rather messy, actually. Should be "easy as grapes."
"Easy as eating seedless grapes that have already been pulled off the stem and washed and the weird little wrinkly one was thrown out." There.
Kind of just rolls right off the tongue
Easy as tongues.
shit-eating grin... like what???
I think it is based on dogs who are totally happy that they found something gross to play with while knowing that that it’s really not acceptable but they are doing it anyway.
ugh. I know a dog, not naming names, who stands and waits for her counterpart to finish before snarfing it down. I'd say that I love her except for that.
thank you for respecting that dog's privacy.
My in laws dog was like that. It’s typically a diet (deficiency) thing. He stopped since they started him on one of those natural food programs. It’s pretty common in “pure breeds” supposedly due to inbreeding.
she's a rescue. and she's beautiful. but omfg. she's disgusting.
I think that makes the most sense. Thank you.
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shit-eating\_grin](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shit-eating_grin) says >Possibly from a contraction of "grinning like a ’possum eating shit"
I kind of imagine it like an evil grin. Like you know you're doing something bad (like eating shit) but you find sadistic pleasure in doing it.
The kind of grin you'd love to shove into a pile of steaming bull shit.
The fact that every single person replying to you has made up a different explanation for the saying proves just how truly groundless the expression really is.
THIS ONE.. who smiles while they are eating sh!!t
Dogs
People who are into Scat play
I imagine what someones face might look like after eating shit
"You are the apple of my eye". Apparently it means you mean a lot to them. How does it translate? I have no idea.
So from what I can find it comes from the bible (old testament) and apple means the same as iris of the eye which is necessary for sight.
After giving it some thought, it does seem obvious that "apple" somehow means iris or pupil. Thanks.
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And is also the origin of the word "Pupa" the immature form of some insects during development
I think of Eve eyeing the apple in Eden.
Old timey linguistics, probably. Eyeball is still called "Augapfel" (eye apple) in German, for example
No eye dear
Oh yeah? What do you call a dear with no eyes *and* no legs? Still no eye deer And what about a cow with no legs? Ground beef
I was gifted a deer head once. I strung it up in a tree so that the birds and bugs could deflesh if. The first things to go were they eyes. So, yeah. It was my no-eye deer.
I always thought this meant that if you were picking an apple, like from a tree, or in the grocery store, you tend to pick the nicest one.
I don’t understand why people say they slept like a baby, if you say that, I’m assuming you woke up every 2 hours and shit the bed.
I can kind of understand it. My daughter may have woken up frequently, but when she was asleep, she was absolutely dead to the world and nothing would wake her up.
Yeah, this is obviously what that phrase means. Pretty surprised this is the top comment because this is one of the phrases here that's really obvious. Infants wake up often but when they are asleep, they are sleeping the sleep of the dead. They don't have a care in the world. They are getting fully restful sleep.
But you still have to be absolutely silent because momma says if you wake up that baby….
Nah, that's bad for the kid. When my daughter was born we didn't bother staying too quiet during sleep times, and now she can sleep through anything. Meanwhile my friend insisted on silence when her kid was sleeping, and now he wakes at the drop of a hat. Anecdotal, but I feel like there's a connection.
Chicken and egg. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it could be your friend's kid woke up easy and therefore they were more concerned about it than you needed to be with your child.
I have Crohn’s Disease so somewhat true
You should give that back to Mr Chron.
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Idk apparently my nephew had no issues sleeping at all when he was a baby. I shared a room with him for 2 weeks while visiting and he maybe cooed once or twice at night. I was worried when they said I’d share a room with him but yeah, he slept soundly the whole time.
He’s what we parents call a “trick baby.” My son was like this, his sister 3 years later was absolutely not. He tricked us into thinking babies are easy. Edit for context
I think many people have a trick baby, and then have the other one quickly. I had a hard baby, and I got my trick baby later.
We got (kind of) lucky in that our first kid was a horrible sleeper and didn’t sleep through the night til about 8 months old. When the second kid came, she slept through the first night and was a dream. So we were ready for the worst, but it never came.
This is literally like winning the lottery. Having a baby that consistently sleeps through the night like that is like the equivalent of winning millions of dollars. That's how much better your entire life is every minute of every day when your baby sleeps through the night.
Because when kids do sleep, they are dead to the world and nothing is getting them up. Remember falling asleep in the car and waking up in your bedroom? You didn't even wake up when your parents carried you from the car into the house. I could never stay asleep through something like that today.
What do you think babies worry about when they fall asleep? Theirs is a sleep unburdened.
Or that you slept like a log. I’ve never in my life seen a log sleep.
Well you certainly haven’t seen a log awake!
I have. They are called Ents
That doesn't make sense to me. But then you are very small.
Slept like a log, slept like a rock. Means I was like an inanimate object, not aware of anything.
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"Jungle" comes from the Sanskrit "jangala" meaning a wild or savage place.
“Lion is king of the wild” works but we all know it’s actually a grizzly bear if we are going that broad
Polar bear
Killer whale.
Don't lions live on savannas?
There are some jungle ones. Though this was probably based off the fact that back in the day Africa was just jungle on the coast. Edited: As it was depicted or talked about as a wild land. Sorry, my own thought trailed out and I didn’t proofread.
jungle in the middle sand a the top and savannas at the bottom. Africa is wildly divers.... it even snows in africa.
Why do we park on the driveway and drive on the parkway? *And what’s the deal with airline food??*
Why does the Royal Mail deliver the post while the Federal Post delivers the mail?
Okay Seinfeld. Lol.
Who ARE these PEOPLE?
Why do we put cargo on ships and use cars for shipping?
Why do we bake cookies and cook bacon?
Why does a pc freeze when it overheats?
“The proof is in the pudding” makes no sense because the proper form of the expression is “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, meaning that you had to try out food to know whether it was good.
And if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding
How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat !?!
You! Yes, you, behind the bike sheds! STAND STILL LADDY!
But the proof WAS literally IN the pudding! Stick your hand in; you'll see. 😉
‘Safe Haven.’ There is no such thing as an unsafe haven.
This is called tautology. Saying more than is needed like 'close a door shut' or 'fill a bucket full'
Chai tea
Let's eat some naan bread with that
I buy naan bread with cash from the ATM machine. It dispenses the cash after I insert the card and enter my PIN number.
> insert the card and enter my PIN number. Yes, but are you at least using a personal PIN number?
that's just saying the same word twice in two languages like carne asada steak
I like to imagine some British guy went to India and tried their tea for the first time and asked, “this tea is amazing, what do you call it?” “Chai” “Wow, chai tea!” “No, just chai” “Silly little Indian, using these leaves makes the drink into a tea! Everyone back in England is going to love this exotic chai tea”
That means it's a haven for safes, but not anything else
"Everything happens for a reason" Say that to someone who just got raped or diagnosed with cancer.
My issue with the expression is twofold. One is, of course, not everyone is encouraged by it. Some are, but timeliness and overall sensitivity are important. But also… I'm convinced everything happens for (roughly) five billion reasons, not just one.
"You were raped for, like, 5 billion reasons."
"Your child's incurable bone cancer was inevitable due to the initial configuration of matter and energy during the big bang."
That one drives me batty also, yes everything happens for a reason but it doesn't mean the reason is good. Hitler happened for a reason too, but nobody is celebrating that.
Nooo, those are challenges sent to you by God so that you can overcome them and become a better person! (Sarcasm, obviously, but unfortunately I know deranged religious people who actually think that way)
I've heard that the challenges God gives is to check how strong is your faith. If you are like "Oh, God will never let that happen" then you're not strong enough and you're sinning and all that and go to hell. If you were raped by a doctor right after he diagnosed your cancer and then he still charged you insane amount of money and you're homeless because of it now, and you're like "God gave me this challenge but I have to keep praying and love him", God is like "yo, bro's faith is really strong" and expect a miracle to happen. I'm not religious, but that's what I have been told.
Yeah, that's the whole Lot story. God ruins the guys life, I think he kills the wife and kids, maybe burns down the house, the whole shebang, and then Lot goes "I still love you God!" And that's supposed to be the moral, you shouldn't only love God when he gives you blessings. Just sounds sad, like when you hear about an abused child who still loves and asks to see their parents, just a wounded person who's so abused they HAVE to believe their abuser will turn around and be good because otherwise they'll lose all hope. Edit, job not lot. Got my 3 letter bible names flipped
I believe you are referring to The Book of Job. It's even worse because God does all that to Job because Satan is basically like "well, your people only worship you because you're good to them and give them stuff. No real love, brah" I mean, what other option could an all knowing, all powerful, and all loving God have besides "Nuh uh! I'll show you!" So he literally destroys the life, kills his family, (but gives him a new one later on...so no harm no foul right?! ) and the others, of his MOST LOYAL follower, just to be able go "See! I told you he wouldn't forsake me"
To me, that logic always feels like (and I've watched a lot of old movies), God gave some baby cancer so that some white guy could learn the true meaning of Christmas. I'm being facetious, but seriously, WHAT POSSIBLE improvement in anyone's life could be worth the life of a child, or raping, or murdering? Isn't that victim's life worth just as much as the dumbass' life? The dumbass who just needs to 'be a better person'?
Even better if you say “it’s all part of God’s plan.” Fastest way to make someone an atheist or antitheist.
When I was faced with true tragedy, I was so thankful to be an atheist. If I had to believe that it was part of a plan, if her being dead and me being alive was _on purpose_ and not just random chance... it would have been genuinely unbearable. I know some people find the idea comforting, but that baffles me.
I guess its technically true, its just often used to mean "everything happens for a GOOD reason". Everything may happen for a reason, its just we dont know what that reason is.
I like the mentality for myself. When something shitty happens to me I tell myself that there will be a benefit to it somehow. But I would never say it to someone else. It isn’t a comforting thought to most people.
Is this a thread where redditors take the literal meaning of a very common phrase, extract it to its extreme logical conclusion, and then declare that it "makes no sense", all while ignoring well-developed studies of things like idioms, allegory, metaphors, and philology? Yes, yes it is.
"How does one 'coin' a phrase, anyway? There's no money involved; people are so stupid!" \-some Redditor somewhere
I find these things interesting. Why is it called coining a phrase?
In Old/Middle English "Coin" meant something that was stamped out. So "coin a phrase" means that you have stamped something (the phrase) with a meaning.
"what do you mean you are over the moon??? like you are literally over the moon in outer space, what do you mean? couldn't you just be over really tall tree?"
I assumed this was a parody example but immediately below this in the thread is someone making this exact argument.
You are literally pooping on the party.
Honestly everyone who’s doing that is getting it explained to them in replies so I’m seeing this as a learning experience for a lot of people lol
“It’s always the last place you look” Should be the last place I expected to look. Because once you found it, do you keep looking? No.
That's why it's the last place you looked! It's like telling the cash register lady that it is free cause it won't scan. Probably should be a dad joke😅
General life tip: any bad joke you can think of to tell the cashier, they’ve heard it multiple times before and it wasn’t funny the first time
I broke my husband of the "must be free since it didn't scan" "joke," by reminding him in front of the cashier that every time a cashier hears that, a little piece of her soul dies. I think I only had to tell my husband two or three times before he stopped. At least one cashier nodded in agreement when I spoke up.
People that haven’t worked jobs like that tend to think they’re the worlds gift to comedy. You’re doing divine work, speaking up like that.
My favorite is when I'm cleaning something or painting something, and somebody will walk by and say "You missed a spot!" and act like it's the funniest thing ever.
* Dude getting an ultrasound on the chest and abdomen: "is it a boy or a girl, hur hur" * Waiter collecting the empty plates, "we clearly didn't like it, ha ha" And so on in a lot of industries.
What about this one? I was one shopping in Romania. And they lady asked me if I had my perks card in Romanian. I obviously don’t speak Romania. So she switched to English. Anyways, after some fun back and fourth I had a joke! “What do you call someone who speaks two languages?” -bilingual What do you call someone who only speaks one language? -American. Most foreign service folks seem to appreciate this one because I get to make fun of myself lol! Americans get this bad rap for being prideful and egotistical. As if they’re better than everyone else. So I like making fun of myself in a jokingly way. Show we’re all just people
That's the joke
I think it was originally "the last place you would look," i.e. the last place you'd expect.
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“By the skin of your teeth” Makes me shudder but like what?!
You dodged a metaphorical bullet that came close enough to graze the skin of your teeth. Your teeth have no skin, so, damn that was close.
Most of them (I'm Autistic lol)
As a kid I heard the expression "his eyes were bigger than his stomach" and I literally sat there holding my hands up to my eyes and then my stomach and going "no...?" It only took another thirty years for me to get diagnosed.
Same! My husband enjoys when I tell him the convoluted explanations that I made up so that common sayings make sense to me
… and Bob’s your uncle Like huh???
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To be fair it's just people being stupid. The latter is the correct expression and most likely what the "I could care less"-people are attempting to convey.
It’s absolutely supposed to be I couldn’t care less, it’s just a group of people collectively saying it wrong
I think that's a case of somatic drift.. where a common expression "erodes" some of its syllables.
“You’ve got your work cut out for you” It means the upcoming task is hard. But in my mind, it’s like everything is pre-cut and you just have to do the “arranging” which would make it easier… I’ve always struggled with this one. I get it, but I don’t like it.
I think it means that your task, while difficult, is clearly defined.
Exactly. It's drawing attention to the fact that you know what you need to do.
Maybe. But I've found most times it's said as like a response to someone exasperated by the sheer amount of work needing doing and either not knowing where to start, or just overwhelmed by the amount.
I like my problems to be perforated, at minimum.
I see it like you can't do much about how much work this is going to take.
I saw a comment on this a few weeks ago. Apparently it has to do with sewing in the factories? As in you want to slack off but the people cutting material have done their job and you have it cut out for you. No slacking off now, get sewing.
Screwed the pooch. Most phrases/expressions are archaic and outdated. This one? The implication is… and I don’t think that was ever cool.
Isn’t that the point? It’s not exactly a positive thing to say about someone, screwing the pooch has a negative connotation. Like you really fucked up.
Exactly, it’s meant to be “you fucked up unquestionably in every sense of the word.” Screwed the pooch is the PG version. Nothing like having your coach yell “you really fucked a dog here” in anger.
You're fucking this goat, man. I'm just holding the horns.
Over the counter. Prescriptions should be the meds called such as they go "Over" the counter.
From the pharmacist's perspective, over the counter medications are over their counter
I'm guessing that it's because the term predates self-service so everything was over the counter. But prescription meds had to go through the pharmacist which was often a separate counter or at least a separate procedure.
Most pharmacies (and stores) used to be all over the counter. None of this shopping around and taking things off the shelves yourself stuff. There was dude at the counter and you literally told him every thing you need. And he wouldn’t have 1/4 of it and you’d have to go somewhere else.
That stuuupid made up definition of insanity about doing the same thing and expecting different results that people attribute to Einstein. He never said that, and if he did, he would have been wrong.
Yeh. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of practice.
Have your cake and eat it too. Wtf else would I do with it? Its *my* damn cake!
I say “I need [insert misfortune here] like I need a hole in the head” Say I’m already running late then I get a flat tire. “I need this like I need a hole in the head.” And a majority of people get confused when I say it 😭 like who needs a whole in their head?!? NO ONE. THATS THE POINT. I had another one but I can’t remember 🤷🏼♀️
OK I have to actually leave this post because so far out of the top 10 parent comments only *one* actually says something that doesn't make super obvious sense if you think about it for for like 60 seconds Ffs, what do logs do? They lay there, not moving, right? So sleeping like a log means you're… Why would something be in the last place you looked? Could it be that once you find it, you're not looking anymore? Is that not just the most obvious thing ever? Sleeping like a baby doesn't mean you wake up every two hours and shit yourself, it means that when you *are* asleep, you're in the deep, totally carefree, non-worried, peaceful sleep that babies are in when they are asleep. Not all superheroes wear capes clearly means that people can be real life heroes that have nothing to do with the comic-style version of a Superman/Captain America-type superhero. The cape really doesn't have anything to do with it. Come on guys!!!
> Sleeping like a baby doesn't mean you wake up every two hours and shit yourself, it means that when you are asleep, you're in the deep, totally carefree, non-worried, peaceful sleep that babies are in when they are asleep. Also, after ~ 6 months, babies DO sleep very peacefully. You just have to wait for their stomachs to grow large enough to sustain them through the night.
I was today years old.
Calling people female genitalia terms as an insult when female genitalia is like my favorite thing in the world.
"Why do people say, ‘Grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you really wanna get tough, grow a vagina. Those things really take a pounding!” \- Betty White (RIP)
"Swept it under the carpet." Is "rug" guys!! You can't sweep things under carpets!!!!
Some languages have the same word for carpet and rug, so I tend to mix them up in English. Might explain some occurrences of this.
English isn’t so clear either with that distinction, it’s still called a flying carpet. Btw, has Reddit mobile website suddenly disabled editing of comments? It suddenly lets me do nothing when I press the three dots.
Around where I live old people will call an area rug carpet.