Sayings you dont understand

[AD.Skinner]

"The exception that proves the rule". What the fuck does that mean? If its an exception, it doesn't prove anything!

There is a translation problem here that I suspect started with Latin. What the saying really means is "the (apparent) exception that tests the rule". So if there is a case that (apparently) proves the rule wrong, but it can be shown that rule does not apply to that case, then the case is actually evidence for the rule instead of against it.

I think it is a translation problem, because in Spanish probar means "to test" or "to try", but is also used to mean "to prove". And as spelled it looks more like "prove" than "test". In English there are two words with slightly different meanings, but in at least one language based on Latin, there is one word that combines those two meanings. Easy to understand the fuck-up.

 

[Xealeon]

"As easy as pie"
I never understood that, pie isn't that easy. I mean, unless you're just filling a pie tin with cream, but that just seems like cheating.

 

[GrimHeaper]

"A bird in the bush is worth two in the hand."

What?

You got that one backwards. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." It means that what you have is more important than what you don't have.

"Bull in a china shop." The Mythbusters busted the hell out of that one.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." No. Seriously, what the hell?

I think you look at a horses teeth to gauge its health. If you're getting something free, don't complain about quality.

You get free torture.
Also I think it means this.

 

[dyre]

An apple a day keeps the doctor away....that's just not true :\

 

[elbrandino]

"To have one's cake and eat it too." Seriously, what the hell.

 

[DustyDrB]

"More or less"

The most meaningless expression I've ever heard. More or less...well, you've covered two-thirds of the possibilities there.

There's a lot of other one's I can't remember. Living in the Southern US, there's tons of incomprehensible expressions around.

 

[NOLAftw]

This is more just a mistake rather than an actual saying, but I *really* don't understand why some people feel that the phrase "I could care less" (rather than "I couldn't care less") actually makes sense.

David Mitchell explains it better than I.
<YOUTUBE=om7O0MFkmpw>

THIS. A million times this. I can't stand when people incorrectly use the phrase "I could care less" unless they intend to be sarcastic/ironic (which 99% of the time they don't).

It comes about because "I couldn't care less" became a stand-alone idiom some time ago. When people say it, they don't think about what each word means and put it all together: it's just a stock phrase that means a particular thing as a whole in the same way that "fire truck" is a particular thing not entirely dependent on the two words (if it were, you'd have no idea if someone were talking about, say, a truck that was on fire, or a truck owned by a pyromaniac). Since they're already not paying attention to its composition, it's extremely easy to lose those consonants (words lose and gain sounds all the time, especially if they happen to sound similar to other words) and, since the composition of the phrase doesn't matter, losing the consonants really doesn't matter either. The best way to think about phrases like "I could(n't) care less" is to think of them as really long words. If a vast number of people pronounce the word in a particular way, it's pretty silly to say that that's an "incorrect" pronunciation.

People who think that people are "incorrect" when they say "could care less" necessarily have a fairly tenuous understanding of how language actually works.

I understand that, as phrases become more and more used, they tend to be viewed as a whole rather than what composes them. Their intended meaning is understood, even if changes due to time and repeated use have caused the literal meaning to become distorted, or in this case, reversed. But, this doesn't change the fact that the saying "could care less" is completely backwards and should never have been so widely used as to make it acceptable. While we can understand it as a case of Tomaydo-Tomahdo, it's still undoubtedly wrong and annoys me for that simple fact. It's mostly that it is so widely used, and even accepted, that annoys me.

 

[Iconsting]

Oh man, where do I begin?

The use of swagger as a noun. Stop it, swagger is a verb and the context people use it as a noun in makes anyone with a basic understanding of the English language cringe in disgust. We have plenty of words to describe one's social skills, confidence and charisma. We don't need more.

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get" This may have been true when the saying was invented, but now you can't find a box of chocolates that doesn't come with a label telling you exactly what you're gonna get.

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away." And if I get shot, stabbed, mauled by a bear, or get an STD? Even if those don't happen, I'd still need to go to the doctor for routine physicals.

"It is what it is." Really? I thought it was something else. This statement is redundant, which makes it redundant.

 

[Not George Carlin]

Why do people say "behind their back" when something is done without their knowing. Isn't that just their front?

 

[ThisIsSnake]

Taking the piss out of someone. I use it, other people use it but why would it be an insult to steal someone's urine, unless it means a person is so clueless that I'm able to steal the urine from inside of them.

 

[ksn0va]

"At the wrong place at the wrong time"

Never really got it. If your at the wrong place at the wrong time then you should be fine because its the wrong time. What it should be is,

Wrong place at the right time.

or

Right place at the wrong time.

Reminds me of HL2. How did that go again?

Anyway, what's a red herring?

 

[TheFloBros]

I've never understood what it meant to "have one's cake and eat it too". I mean, what else are you going to do with a cake? A cake is functionally useless if you can't eat it. Unless, of course, you're going to throw it at someone, and I'm sure not going to do that. It's my cake! I have it and I'm going to eat it, too!

You could hide in it if your a stripper.

 

[The Real Sandman]

Bollocks

Maybe I have to be British to get it. But for now... what the fuck?

 

[thedoclc]

"To have one's cake and eat it too." Seriously, what the hell.

A person wants mutually exclusive good things, such as eating all kinds of greasy, fatty foods and not having problems as a result. It makes more sense if you add some modifiers, as in, "Have one's cake on the table as a brilliant centerpiece and still get to eat it at the same time." If you're eating it, you don't get to keep it as a wonderful centerpiece.

Same idea.

 

[thedoclc]

Anyway, what's a red herring?

Tracing a red herring across your tracks was supposed to throw off bloodhounds. Mythbusters did a special about it. A red herring is a false lead which throws you off the right trail.

Imagine you were discussing a biology test: "Oh, the stop codon makes it a nonsense mutation; all that stuff about alternate splicing is there to distract you."

Or

"...alternate splicing is a red herring."

 

[The Real Sandman]

Post Flail

 

[Scars Unseen]

"Quote, [text], unquote."

You just quoted it. Why would you unquote what you just quoted?

 

[ERS86]

One phrase that always gets me is "screwed the pooch."

I get that it means to mess up really bad, as in "Bob screwed the pooch on this project" means that Bob messed up, and the whole project is ruined because of him.

It's just that... phrases had to have come from somewhere. So... where in history is the dude that literally screwed a pooch?!?!

 

[Sikratua]

Bollocks

Maybe I have to be British to get it. But for now... what the fuck?

Bollocks = Testicles

It's another way of saying "Bullshit." However, if you say that something is "The Dog's Bollocks," that is seen as high praise. Not exactly sure why.

 

[crudus]

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." No. Seriously, what the hell?

This is actually a fun one. Back in the day horses were very valuable especially the big, strong ones. Con-artists figured out that if you feed a horse arsenic it would cling to the fat and make the horse look very healthy. The horse would drop dead a short while after it stopped being fed arsenic. The only way to tell if arsenic was being fed to a horse was to check its teeth. It is considered rude/distrustful if you check a horse's teeth and it was given to you for free.

tl;dr: don't point out the flaws in something you got for free.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." I have never been able to grasp this concept, I mean its sound on paper I suppose. But when you apply it in real life its really flawed logic, just because you have an enemy that has another enemy doesn't mean you and enemy of your enemy should be buddies. For all you know enemy of your enemy is also your enemy, but you guys both just happen to have a common enemy.

Well, if A is strong enough to take down B and C individually but not together, then it would make sense for B and C to team up. It still holds true if B and C are enemies after A is dead.

"A bird in the bush is worth two in the hand."

What?

(btw, you have it backwards)

It was originally "A fish in the net is better than two in the river". It means that what you have is better than what you don't have. Especially since what you have is guaranteed, while what you could have could easily get away. I guess it assumes you would throw away what you have to catch what you don't.