Why do we often misunderstand expressions?

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The discussion revolves around humorous misunderstandings of common expressions and phrases. Participants share various examples, such as "crap-shoot" mistakenly heard as "crab-shoot," and "pool sharp" misinterpreted as "pool shark." Mispronunciations often stem from cultural differences, like a Brit mishearing American names. Other notable examples include "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes," and "tow the line" confused with "toe the line." The conversation also touches on the evolution of language, with phrases like "au jus" being misused in American vernacular. Participants express amusement at these errors, highlighting how language can lead to confusion and laughter. The thread emphasizes the importance of understanding and correctly using expressions while enjoying the quirks of language.
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Read a post today where someone was asking for an explanation in "Lehman's terms." Oh brother! (pun intended)

Anyone have any funny misunderstood expressions to share?
 
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A friend always thought "crap-shoot" was "crab-shoot". He reasoned that trying to shoot a bunch of crabs skittering about would be difficult because they are small and agile. I laughed pretty hard.
 
"Pool sharp," was misheard as "pool shark" so often that the latter is now accepted as correct, and the former as a mistake.
 
As a Brit, I sometimes have trouble with American names in phone calls etc. I spent months thinking Wayne Tygert was Wayne Tiger, and Randy Seager was Randy Seagull. (And as a Brit, it doesn't seem at all impossible that an American would be called Randy Seagull...)

The worst horror story was a Texan lady called Arlene, which didn't compute even when it was spelled out several times in a Texan accent. (The nearest UK equivalent would be Eileen).
 
Voilà. Every day on tv I hear people saying "Wallah!". One day a member in chat said "wallah" and everyone jumped on them, they said they'd been watching a cooking show and had closed captioning on and since the tv celebrity said "wallah!", the caption said "wallah!". :frown:

It's voilà. With a "v".

@@@@@@@@@@

Au jus - "with jus (sauce, gravy, drippings)

You can serve something with jus as in "roast beef au jus".

You cannot serve someone a "with with jus" as in "Roast beef with au jus"

You cannot make a "with jus" as in "make an au jus".

But this is becoming another American bastardization, changing "au jus" from an adjective to a noun.
 
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An ex-girlfriend once asked why the software that I was hacking on at the time was called the "eunuch's colonel".
 
One of my friends thought "lactose intolerant" was "lactose and tolerant".
 
One that I've always thought hilarious was reported by writer John Irving, one of whose characters is afraid to go swimming in the ocean because he was warned about what he understood to be the giant frog that lives there. The "under toad".
 
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"once and a while" (once in a while)

"For all intensive purposes" (For all intents and purposes)

"tow the line" it's "toe the line"

We had a mentor that would say 'treat them with "kit gloves", he meant "kid gloves"
 
  • #10
phinds said:
One that I've always thought hilarious was reported by writer John Irving, one of whose characters is afraid to go swimming in the ocean because he was warned about what he understood to be the giant frog that lives there. The "under toad".
The "under toad", that's awesome!
 
  • #11
Lol, I thought "Misunderstood expressions" meant math expressions at first.
 
  • #12
Drakkith said:
Lol, I thought "Misunderstood expressions" meant math expressions at first.

A mere misunderstanding of the misunderstood expressions expression.
 
  • #13
"Begs the question" is one I would think would bother a lot of people here. The incorrect meaning is pretty much standard now though, so I don't really mind it.

Expressions that at least one person has misunderstood:
I used to think "for which it stands" in the Pledge of Allegiance was "for witches' stands", and would picture a bunch of witches running a lemonade stand. It's not as easy as it might seem to brainwash a kid to be patriotic, I guess.

Speaking of which, I seem to remember some baseball crowds employing a common misunderstanding of the first few lines of the Star-Spangled Banner after Jose Canseco had a fly ball bounce off his huge melon of a head from whatever horse steroids he was on for a homerun. No, Jose couldn't always see so well.

I thought the doctor said I have eggs in my stomach when he told my parents I had eczema. I believe I had seen or at least heard of the famous scene in Alien by that time too.
 
  • #14
I heard a neighbor speaking about her son, who had started to misbehave doing something (don't remember the details). She said, "Well I nipped that in the butt!"

Probably pretty effective.
 
  • #15
How about the classic "I could care less" I keep reading again and again.
 
  • #16
reenmachine said:
How about the classic "I could care less" I keep reading again and again.
That one kills me, we actually had people in another thread trying to defend it's use. :rolleyes:
 
  • #17
Nugatory said:
An ex-girlfriend once asked why the software that I was hacking on at the time was called the "eunuch's colonel".
:smile:
 
  • #18
phinds said:
[...] afraid to go swimming in the ocean because he was warned about what he understood to be the giant frog that lives there. The "under toad".
What happens if an Under Toad encounters an escaped Pool Shark? Which one wins?
 
  • #19
strangerep said:
What happens if an Under Toad encounters an escaped Pool Shark? Which one wins?

The Eunuch's colonel shall decide that.
 
  • #20
Evo said:
Au jus - "with jus (sauce, gravy, drippings)

You can serve something with jus as in "roast beef au jus".

You cannot serve someone a "with with jus" as in "Roast beef with au jus"

You cannot make a "with jus" as in "make an au jus".

But this is becoming another American bastardization, changing "au jus" from an adjective to a noun.
And why did Americans start calling main dishes entrées? Entrée means entrance, it is what you start the meal with.
 
  • #21
Just saw another one on PF. Probably a typo, but funny nonetheless:

Let's stake a step back

Poor step!
 
  • #22
We used to have an engineer (whose first language wasn't English) who always sad "rule of thump" for "rule of thumb".
 
  • #23
My wife's first language isn't English and she tends to mess up prepositions and word order. She once mistook the phrase "playing hard to get" as "playing get it hard". That was a fun conversation. :-p
 
  • #24
"Excuse me, while I kiss this guy."
-Jimi Hendrix
 
  • #25
reenmachine said:
How about the classic "I could care less" I keep reading again and again.

Evo said:
That one kills me, we actually had people in another thread trying to defend it's use. :rolleyes:

Does the expression "I should be so lucky!" bother you, as well?

Usually, a person is expressing the feeling that there's no way he'd ever be that lucky when they use that phrase.

Or does the expression "Cool!" bother you?

Usually, when a person uses that word to react to some interesting feat, they're obviously not referring to the temperature.
 
  • #26
The worst offender in my opinion is "the exception proves the rule" when used to support the "rule" that was just broken.
 
  • #27
BobG said:
Does the expression "I should be so lucky!" bother you, as well?

Usually, a person is expressing the feeling that there's no way he'd ever be that lucky when they use that phrase.

Or does the expression "Cool!" bother you?

Usually, when a person uses that word to react to some interesting feat, they're obviously not referring to the temperature.
Sorry Bob, I don't see how "cool" intentionally used as slang compares to people misunderstanding a grammatically correct phrase and actually thinking that "I could care less" means the same as "I couldn't care less". People actually don't realize that they misheard the original phrase and thought that what they were saying actually meant that they couldn't care less. Same goes for the expression "I should be so lucky", it, like 'cool" are not misunderstandings of a correct expression.

The correct phrase is "I couldn't care less".

Which is correct: I could care less or I couldn't care less?

The expression I could not care less originally meant 'it would be impossible for me to care less than I do because I do not care at all'. It was originally a British saying and came to the US in the 1950s. It is senseless to transform it into the now-common I could care less. If you could care less, that means you care at least a little. The original is quite sarcastic and the other form is clearly nonsense.

http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/g09.html
 
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  • #28
I regularly watch for interesting building materials on Craigslist (yeah it's a strange hobby :biggrin:), and it's full of gems.

Wayne's coating. Rot iron. Lam-nut flooring.
 
  • #29
lisab said:
I regularly watch for interesting building materials on Craigslist (yeah it's a strange hobby :biggrin:), and it's full of gems.

Wayne's coating. Rot iron. Lam-nut flooring.
What, no duck tape?
 
  • #30
Bandersnatch said:
What, no duck tape?
http://duckbrand.com/images/products/280317_386x360.jpg
 
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  • #31
Lol :smile:
 
  • #32
duck tape vs. duct tape

is like

crescent wrench vs. adjustable wrench
 
  • #33
Pythagorean said:
duck tape vs. duct tape

is like

crescent wrench vs. adjustable wrench
Are you saying crescent wrench is a brand name of adjustable wrench formed as a reverse eponym from misspelling of the latter?
 
  • #34
Evo said:
http://duckbrand.com/images/products/280317_386x360.jpg

Bandersnatch said:
Lol :smile:
I can't remember how old I was when I finally realized that "duck tape" was actually "duct tape". I wasn't young. :redface:
 
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  • #35
Evo said:
I can't remember how old I was when I finally realized that "duck tape" was actually "duct tape". I wasn't young. :redface:

Glad to know that I wasn't the only one...
:blushing:
 
  • #36
Actually, it was called duck tape before it was called duct tape. It's also not very good on ducts.
 
  • #37
Bandersnatch said:
Are you saying crescent wrench is a brand name of adjustable wrench formed as a reverse eponym from misspelling of the latter?

naw, just that they are two products that people call by brand name.
 
  • #38
The first time I went to a fancy "sit down" restaurant, the waitress asked me; "Super Salad?"
I said; "No thank you. Can I just have a small salad, like everyone else? ..."
 
  • #39
lisab said:
Wayne's coating. Rot iron. Lam-nut flooring.
Makes you wish a pool shark would nip them in the butt.
 
  • #40
Evo said:
I can't remember how old I was when I finally realized that "duck tape" was actually "duct tape". I wasn't young. :redface:

So you're saying you weren't young in the 50's? :-p

As Vanadium mentioned, duck tape, tape made from cotton duck cloth, was first used around the turn of the century. In World War II, regular duck tape was modified to include the 'rubberized' coating to make it waterproof. It didn't start being called duct tape until the 50's, when it started being marketed as a way to seal air ducts. As Vanadium also mentioned, the original version didn't work very well on heating ducts. Modifications were made to provide a heat resistant version of duck/duct tape for heating ducts and a cold resistant version for air conditioning ducts.

So, it actually does work pretty well on ducts... provided you buy the right version.

But it still doesn't work as well on air ducts as it does in removing unwanted back hair. The heat resistant version and the cold resistant version work equally well in removing back hair.
 
  • #41
Evo said:
I can't remember how old I was when I finally realized that "duck tape" was actually "duct tape". I wasn't young. :redface:
Duck tape is not duct tape. Duct tape is very hard, very strong, very durable, nigh impossible to cut, and works extremely well on ducts. Duck tape is soft, weak, degradable, easily ripped, and should never, ever be used on ducts.
 
  • #42
Back to the original topic: Twenty-plus years ago I was active in working with my kids' athletic activities. The last name of one of the kids on one team was Hebert. Being a transplanted northerner, I naturally pronounced that as He-bert. Boy, did I get some feedback! I had to remind myself that the South is Oz, and that the correct pronunciation of that surname is given by "A lion, a tiger, Hebert, oh my!"
 
  • #43
D H said:
Back to the original topic: Twenty-plus years ago I was active in working with my kids' athletic activities. The last name of one of the kids on one team was Hebert. Being a transplanted northerner, I naturally pronounced that as He-bert. Boy, did I get some feedback! I had to remind myself that the South is Oz, and that the correct pronunciation of that surname is given by "A lion, a tiger, Hebert, oh my!"
:smile:
 
  • #44
If you're interested in Duct Tape you might enjoy this: http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/duct-tape-HVAC.html
 
  • #45
D H said:
Duck tape is not duct tape. Duct tape is very hard, very strong, very durable, nigh impossible to cut, and works extremely well on ducts. Duck tape is soft, weak, degradable, easily ripped, and should never, ever be used on ducts.

*wonders if a duck could escape from being tied with duck tape*
 
  • #46
D H said:
Duck tape is soft, weak, degradable, easily ripped, and should never, ever be used on ducts.

Hmm... something seems to have got "lost in translation" from the original product. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_duck

(I've never seen a reel of anything marketed as "duck tape", but I know the term "duck sheeting" for the cloth used as weatherproof covers, etc.)
 
  • #47
AlephZero said:
Hmm... something seems to have got "lost in translation" from the original product. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_duck

(I've never seen a reel of anything marketed as "duck tape", but I know the term "duck sheeting" for the cloth used as weatherproof covers, etc.)

Doek tape? People would have started pronouncing it "Doke tape." Then, probably calling it, "Okey Dokey Tape".
 
  • #48
zoobyshoe said:
Doek tape? People would have started pronouncing it "Doke tape."
If Americans heard it without seeing the Dutch spelling, they would probably have spelled it "Duke tape" (with a flat American u sound, not British English "Dewk"). But Dutch vowels tend to sound shorter than they look (at least to my British eyes and ears) so Duck isn't a bad approximation.
 
  • #49
What's a flat american u sound? I would have pronounced Duke as Dewk.
 
  • #50
Pythagorean said:
What's a flat american u sound? I would have pronounced Duke as Dewk.

I could pronounce it either way. For example:

Duke Nukem - Dook
The Duke of wherever - Dewk (That's with a kind of Y sound after the D, right? Or like when someone says "Eewww, gross!" Deeewwwwk)
 

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