4 ms·
I do love these. I wonder if there is a collection of these sayings that have shifted entirely to mean something else. Like "blood is thicker than water" was o
by Loughla 4y ago
I do love these. I wonder if there is a collection of these sayings that have shifted entirely to mean something else.
Like "blood is thicker than water" was originally "blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb." The meaning is literally the opposite, but it got co-opted and changed at some point.
These things are fascinating.
- yellowstuff 4y agoThat seems to be a popular internet myth, but without much evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_is_thicker_than_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_is_thicker_than_water
- Loughla 4y agoThat might be even better! Now there's no meaning other than what you, individually, choose to attribute to it. I love living languages.
- Nition 4y agoAnother one I've seen recently circulating on the Internet is an idea that "The customer is always right" was originally "The customer is always right, in matters of taste". Also not true.
- scarmig 4y agoI wonder if there's a name for this phenomenon. Eggcorns aren't quite right, as they're more about mishearing a word or phrase in a way that still makes sense in context (e.g. Alzheimer's disease -> old-timers' disease). Mondegreens are about mishearing a word or phrase and substituting them for something different. Those are errors in interpreting phonic elements, but there's no misinterpretation of the words for these phrases/idioms; it's just disregarding the meaning entirely and substituting a new meaning.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- oxfeed65261 4y agoA pair of examples: “bought a pig in a poke” and “let the cat out of the bag.” “Poke” is an archaic term for “bag” [0], related to “pocket.” Apparently a common medieval scam was to try to sell a cat as a suckling pig, concealing the cat in a bag [1]. One who buys such a pig in a poke is cheated. One who lets the cat out of the bag reveals a secret too soon. Note however that [2] argues that this etymology for lack out of the bag” is not plausible. [0] Etymology 2, https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/poke https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/poke [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_in_a_poke https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_in_a_poke [2] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/let-the-cat-out-of-the-bag/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/let-the-cat-out-of-the-bag..., referenced from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letting_the_cat_out_of_the_bag https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letting_the_cat_out_of_the_b...
- meheleventyone 4y agoPoke means bag in Scotland. You get a poke of chips for example.
- yamtaddle 4y ago"Gangbusters" has become a sort of generic intensifier but the original phrase was something like "to come on like Gangbusters", referring to a radio show with an obnoxiously-noisy intro (it's on Youtube if you're curious). Increasingly distant metaphorical use and people falling out of familiarity with the origin of the phrase led us to modern constructions like "my tomatoes are going gangbusters!" which don't really fit with the original usage.
- dllthomas 4y agoI am often amused and frustrated at the common institutional excuse of misbehavior being due to "a few bad apples" as though the saying were "a few bad apples are no big deal, get rid of them (or hide them elsewhere in the barrel) if anyone happens to notice them." I've heard that "a rolling stone gathers no moss" tends to differ in sense between the UK and the US as to whether "moss" is desirable.