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* sperm whale: yes, this can also exact puerile giggling from native speakers * "You can't have your cake and eat it, too": might be better phrased as "can't e
by knome 3y ago
* sperm whale: yes, this can also exact puerile giggling from native speakers
* "You can't have your cake and eat it, too": might be better phrased as "can't eat your cake and have it, too". The idiom is stuck in its given form, however.
* blow job: I have read this etymologically arose from "below job". there are occasional humorous anecdotes related to native speakers misunderstanding it as well
* first off: never really thought about this before. I would suppose it comes from metaphorically popping the first of many arguments off of the speakers mental list.
* ladyfinger: it meant long like fingers, the lady part meant to indicate slender or delicate. there was a plant called ladyfingers as well
- nathansherburn 3y agoI would have thought "first off" came from "first of all". I.e. of all the points I'm about to make, this is the first.
- hnick 3y agoThere is a saying “first cab off the rank” or “first off the mark” (as in running races) so it may be a shorter version of something like that.