Mis quoted sayings

[Titan]

It is surprising how many famous sayings get misquoted and mangled - usually because someone has miss-heard them. Unfortunately some of the miss-quotes get repeated often enough that the miss-quote gets accepted as the norm. Often this can make the quoter sound silly, and you might have a little snigger to yourself, other times it is so wrong that it goes beyond being silly and they are actually saying the opposite of what they mean - but just repeat it without thinking anyway!

 

Here is the top ten British miss-quotes according to the Telegraph, correct saying in brackets:

 

1) A damp squid (a damp squib)

2) On tender hooks (on tenter hooks)

3) Nip it in the butt (nip it in the bud)

4) Champing at the bit (chomping at the bit)

5) A mute point (a moot point)

6) One foul swoop (one fell swoop)

7) All that glitters is not gold (all that glisters is not gold)

8) Adverse to (averse to)

9) Batting down the hatches (batten down the hatches)

10) Find a penny pick it up (find a pin pick it up)

 

Looking at that list there are one or two I am guilty of! Not mentioned on the list though is the one that irritates me the most, regularly used on Mythbusters which no doubt helps perpetuate the error even further, because if you think about what they are actually saying it is in fact the complete opposite of what they mean, but they repeat it without thinking anyway!

 

The exception that proves the rule (The exception to the rule)

 

There must be many others that either make you chuckle or cringe - feel free to add them!

 

(And before it happens, mention of 'Train Station' is banned!!!)

[Rivercider]

One of my former colleagues often used the expression

 

"it's a pit of worms" (a can of worms?)

 

which made me smile to myself

 

cheers

[jjb1970]

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

[SGJ]

It is surprising how many famous sayings get misquoted and mangled - usually because someone has miss-heard them. Unfortunately some of the miss-quotes get repeated often enough that the miss-quote gets accepted as the norm. Often this can make the quoter sound silly, and you might have a little snigger to yourself, other times it is so wrong that it goes beyond being silly and they are actually saying the opposite of what they mean - but just repeat it without thinking anyway!

 

Here is the top ten British miss-quotes according to the Telegraph, correct saying in brackets:

 

10) Find a penny pick it up (find a pin pick it up)

 

The number 10 is one I disagree with, As its surely part of a Yorkshire saying, Find A penny, Pick it up, all day long, you`ll have good luck. Maybe the rest of the country is wrong including the Telegraph ( or not ).

[uax6]

From the gecko (from the get go)

 

Andy G

[Fat Controller]

I would quibble with one or two of the quoted references:-

4- 'Champing' is the archaic form of 'Chomping'- no reason why one should not be used in place of the other

7- Likewise, 'glisters' is an archaic form of 'glitters'; the original 'All that glisters is not gold' is from 'The Merchant of Venice', the word also occurs in the King James Bible.

Criticising someone for using one instead of another of these seems unduly pedantic to me, and I'm fairly careful about my use of English.

As for (10); I've heard both. M-i-L, from Staffordshire, uses 'pin'. Mother (from W Wales) uses 'penny'.

It is very easy to mis-hear things, with song lyrics being particularly bad; I'm still wondering what Bob Dylan meant when he sang that 'Rosemary took a cabbage into town'. 

[Wheatley]

"The exception which proves the rule" isn't wrong, but it is misused. From Wikipedia (yes I know):

 

The phrase is derived from a legal principle of republican Rome: exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis ("the exception confirms the rule in cases not excepted"), a concept first proposed by Cicero in his defence of Lucius Cornelius Balbus. This means a stated exception implies the existence of a rule to which it is the exception. The second part of Cicero's phrase, "in casibus non exceptis" or "in cases not excepted," is almost always missing from modern uses of the statement that "the exception proves the rule," which may contribute to frequent confusion and misuse of the phrase.

 

It goes on to give a load of examples from Fowler if you can't get your head around that.  

[teaky]

Great minds rarely think alike.  Fools seldom differ.

[unravelled]

I think there's a big difference between using the wrong word, (tow the line for toe the line), and updating the word without changing the meaning, (glitters/glisters). The one which most niggles me is whet your whistle instead of wet your whistle. The problem today is that so many people get it wrong in print. that a phrase becomes common useage even though it's lost its original sense.

 

 

Dave

[jcm@gwr]

The other problem is the difference between spoken and written word (or not).

Can you really tell the difference between wet and whet, until it is written down,

also, is moot and mute a pronunciation difference due to regional accents?

But I agree, some make me laugh, and some are cringe-worthy!

[Ian J.]

I agree about verbal usage falling foul when written. In some of those cases the speaker might not be familiar with an older spelling of a given pronunciation, so when writing down such a phrase uses the spelling that they are most familiar with, not realising the difference in meaning.

 

But, my current pet hate is the well known American 'could care less', which of course is the opposite of what they actually mean which is 'couldn't care less', but seems to have come about because they can't be arsed to pronounce the 'n't' contraction.

[bertiedog]

Fly leaf of All Creatures Great And Small, by James Herriot (James Herriot is a pseudonym)

 

Colleage at work"I thought he was a vet".........What is a (sic) "psoidannoyme?"....................

[Fat Controller]

The other problem is the difference between spoken and written word (or not).

Can you really tell the difference between wet and whet, until it is written down,

also, is moot and mute a pronunciation difference due to regional accents?

But I agree, some make me laugh, and some are cringe-worthy!

'Moot' has several meanings; an Anglo-Saxon assembly to discuss local business and a legal argument amongst them. The origin is probably Anglo-Saxon.

'Mute' means to be either unwilling or unable to speak, and is of Latin (via Old French) origin.

One could choose to remain mute about a moot point..

[eastwestdivide]

Dragon's Den. Until that TV prog came along, dragons used to live in lairs, and boys had dens.

[Corbs]

David Mitchell did a good video on differences between UK and US English phrases....

[jcm@gwr]

'Moot' has several meanings; an Anglo-Saxon assembly to discuss local business and a legal argument amongst them. The origin is probably Anglo-Saxon.

'Mute' means to be either unwilling or unable to speak, and is of Latin (via Old French) origin.

One could choose to remain mute about a moot point..

 

I didn't make myself clear, obviously!

I know the difference, but 2 people, from different areas could pronounce the

same word differently, or even make both words sound the same.

[dhjgreen]

I think there's a big difference between using the wrong word, (tow the line for toe the line), and updating the word without changing the meaning, (glitters/glisters). The one which most niggles me is whet your whistle instead of wet your whistle. The problem today is that so many people get it wrong in print. that a phrase becomes common useage even though it's lost its original sense.Dave

They are probably thinking of "whet the appetite" ie to sharpen it.

[bertiedog]

Words spoken are always a bit odd written down, we barely notice quite how ridiculous the spelling is, and even then the pronunciation may confuse the issue. 

 

Brought to the notice of the masses on QI BBC programme, is the modern research into Old English, the "Ye Olde Shoppe" syndrome, where the assumption was made by Victorians was that it was said as written, whereas it is just an old form of spelling and should be read and pronounced as we do now.

 

At one point in the 1930's, long treatises were written about how difficult it would have been to talk to a Tudor or Elizabethan person, and they assumed a sort of "Mummerset" West Country accent was required to use the phrases, but it turns out you would have no difficulty with a conversation with an Elizabethan, apart from words and phrases that have disappeared altogether from common usage.

 

Stephen

[Jinty3f]

I'm fairly carefully about my use of English.

!

 

[Fat Controller]

 

I'm fairly carefully about my use of English.

!

 

That'll larn me.

[wombatofludham]

One idiom I still find myself using over the original was the deliberately "mis-heard" classic from the script-writers of Drop the Dead Donkey, "Wake Up and Smell the Toast".  It's firmly lodged itself into my brain alongside a number of other phrases from past comedies lost in the mists of Dave, YouTube and Network DVDs.

[Enterprisingwestern]

The worlds your lobster.

 

Mike.

[pH]

Can you really tell the difference between wet and whet, until it is written down?

 

When I or my wife pronounce them, yes I can. Similarly, I can tell the difference between Wales and whales.

[bertiedog]

Del Trotter's favourite words of surprise " Bonnet de douche " in Only Fools and Horses.......Shower Cap?!!!

[96701]

Cool whip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZmqJQ-nc_s