When examined, or just because it’s weird on its own.
Example: Beat a dead horse
- You whip a horse to go faster
- It dies from being whipped too much
- You still want the horse to go faster
- You continue to whip it
Break a leg
How does telling someone to sustain serious injuries imply you want them to succeed?
My understanding is that that was the original intention of the phrase. It’s meant to be ironic but then the irony was lost as the phrase got more popular
“I’m not here to fuck spiders” - said by Australians who want to drop the preamble and get down to business.
That’s hilarious, I should try that out
Nah, surprise everyone.
Leap into the room, exclaim “I’m here to fuck spiders”, then drop trou and hump a cobweb.
Keep the bastards guessing
Head over heels.
So… Standing?
No I think it refers to the motion of the head going over the heels. Not being positioned in a static frame over the heels.
“Quitting cold turkey” - I never actually thought about this one, but apparently it’s directly related to addiction (which seems kind of obvious now that I do think about it). When you quit an addiction abruptly, you sometimes get that cold goosebump skin like a cold turkey.
Goosebumps like from a goose? Why isn’t it called ‘going cold goose’ then?
I don’t know, but it just doesn’t roll off the tongue the way “cold turkey” does.
“It’s raining cats and dogs.”
Somehow, heavy rain is represented by a downpour of household animals.
The household animals are not pouring down. This saying describes rainfall that is so powerful that it washes away the dead cats and dogs lying in the gutter in medieval cities.
Interesting. I always thought it was because the rain was so heavy it drove all the strays to seek shelter, so people noticed a lot more cats and dogs in front of their homes. I think a grade school teacher told me that when I was a kid. I like the dead animal version better.
It’s previously rained frogs or fish from clouds, at certain times throughout history.
So, cats and dogs is an even more intense version of that maybe.
This one is because when houses had straw roofs, cats and dogs would sit up there, and come down in the rain.
Hoisted by my own petard (to be foiled by your own plan), is a nice flowery one, although it actually makes sense. The bee’s knees (for something excellent) is a good one that makes no sense. Wet behind the ears (inexperienced) is another cool one.
“The dogs bollocks” is another, same as bees knees.
“Hoisted by your own petard” is from Hamlet. Equivalent to “It blew up in your own face” but with more of a cause of hippocracy
The french used to use an explosive device called a “petard” (old french for a fart), that was used to breach doors. However these would sometimes blow back and kill the user rather than breach the door. This was the original intention for the Shakespearian phrase. One was Hoisted (old verb* not used anymore but essentially blown off their feet) by their own Petard (or door breaching bomb).
More information is here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoist_with_his_own_petard
*Unrelated to hoist as in to lift, despite similarities
“Run like you’ve never ran before” suggests that you’d probably suck at running.
I’ve never heard that one before. But now I’m going to use it.
Dollars to donuts.
WTF does it even mean?
Well, back in the day, a doughnut cost a lot less than a donut.
So, betting dollars against donuts would be a bad idea.
Not that it was ever a betting term, it just condone contains a reference to betting.
It’s like saying “hey, lets get dinner. You give me a twig for every dollar I put in.”
You’re either exchanging something of unequal value, or making an “investment” where you get very little return on it.
My father-in-law from rural west Texas refers to things as being ‘slicker than owl shit’ and some people as being ‘richer than ten feet up a bull’s ass.’
There are a lot of good Texasism. I was living in Texas when I first heard “Oh bless her heart.”. Mean either she’s a good person, or she’s dumber than dog shit.
“Bless your heart” is such a sneaky Southern saying.
As happy as Larry.
Now… who is Larry, why is he happy, how happy, like a little bit or ecstatic?
Be like Larry.
Taking God’s name in vain
- You invoke God on some topic you’re wrong about.
- God appears and sees your worthless comment.
- ???
- God punishes you, or he backs away, or he learns to not listen to you anymore in boy cries wolf type situation? Its really not clear what the repercussions are.
No, no, it was originally “Taking God’s name in vein,” as saying the name of God out loud would allow Him into your blood. If you say the name of God, you allow him to inhabit your blood, gain your power, and become even more mighty. The ancient Hebrews feared God gaining too much power, as He would be able to destroy the world. Then Christians figured out that if they took Communion and instead drank the blood of Christ, they could reverse the Hebrew God’s power and slowly increase their own until they could ascend to the heavens and do battle with the Almighty, empowered by His blood in their veins, rather than weakened by taking His name in vein. In this seventeen-part essay, I will describe how we can defeat God by
That’s one that always bothered me too. When I say “Jesus fucking Christ” I mean it. Which is it’s own weird ism when you think about it…
You can lead a whore to water, but you can’t make her douche.
Yap, still guessing
“scientists say…”
They aren’t some unified entity. They don’t even agree amongst themselves on most things if one digs deep enough. While there is some interpretation of the data involved, most people that use the phrase “Scientists say…” are essentially saying “Objective observations done by several of the smartest humans have been argued over by several of their rivals resulting in…”
Like, we should start calling them something like Observational Data Warriors ™ /s to put perspective on the magnitude of information and depth involved. You can have an opinion but you are a coward of no relevant value if you are not trained for battle and fighting on the front lines. So whatever nonsense you have to say results in you looking like a clown of no note.
Whenever my dad is being lazy or doing something too slowly, my mom says he’s “dicking the dog”. Whatever that means.
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