Expressions That Don't Make Sense

Calboner · 03-31-2008

From the Department of Mangled Expressions: "to fall between the cracks" -- a common but utterly stupid mangling of the phrase "to fall through the cracks" (perhaps by confusion with "to fall between two stools"). If something falls through a crack, then it is lost; if it falls between the cracks, then it is lying where anyone can pick it up.

dumbcow · 03-31-2008

Cow being an insult. Are you humans insane?

rico27 · 03-31-2008

I have heard this one in the business world and it bugs me..."that fell off his/her radar screen". WTF??

jimbob369 · 03-31-2008

Near miss.

"Wouldn't a 'near miss' mean that the two planes actually hit?!?! They nearly missed each other!" - George Carlin

Calboner · 03-31-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimbob369

Near miss.

"Wouldn't a 'near miss' mean that the two planes actually hit?!?! They nearly missed each other!" - George Carlin

Exactly: I grind my teeth every time I hear or read "near miss." What they mean is a narrow miss, or a near-hit.

rec3000 · 03-31-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calboner

Exactly: I grind my teeth every time I hear or read "near miss." What they mean is a narrow miss, or a near-hit.

I part near fell off my seat when I read that.

English is full of idiomatic expressions. It makes for a much steeper ESL learning curve. I avoid these expressions as a rule; they often don't make any sense.

"Make no bones about it." Where did this expression come from? I know the meaning, but I have no idea what it's origins are.

Calboner · 04-02-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by rec3000

"Make no bones about it." Where did this expression come from? I know the meaning, but I have no idea what it's origins are.

I found the following account on a site that seems to be pretty reliable:

Quote:

It has been argued that the phrase had its origin in dice games, since dice have been called bones since the fourteenth century at the latest, for the good reason that they were originally carved from bone. The image presumably is that the player doesn’t stop to call on Dame Fortune or talk to the dice after the manner of craps players (“Baby needs new shoes!”) but just rolls them.

A more probable, but somewhat surprising, origin is from the meal table. The oldest version of the expression is to find bones in something, meaning to find a difficulty or objection in some course of action. The first example is from one of the Paston letters of 1459. It seems to have been linked especially with soup: to have a bone in that certainly presented difficulties in eating it. To find no bones in something meant that you had no problems or difficulties. The idiom seems to have grown out of that.

I think that the short answer is that no one knows for certain where the expression came from.

SpeedoMike · 04-05-2008

consensus of opinion... isn't that what a consensus IS?

hot water heater... if the water is hot, there's no need for a water heater.

when it's too hot in the room, why do people say "turn up the air conditioner".

if a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, what do diabetics take?

Expressions That Don't Make Sense

From the Department of Mangled Expressions: "to fall between the cracks" -- a common but utterly stupid mangling of the phrase "to fall through the cracks" (perhaps by confusion with "to fall between two stools"