Sayings you dont understand

[Jason Danger Keyes]

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Well, yeah you would, since you'd be me and make the same decisions I do.

 

[Empyreal EoV]

Exceptions exist because rules are in place. You can't have one without the other.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Shut up, sit down and be quiet.
I seriously have no clue to what that means, but it usually is said halfway through one of my riveting speeches.
Can anyone explain?

It means close your book/laptop, sit down, and stop making noise. It's an order to listen.

Either you didn't get my sarcasm, or i'm not getting yours.

 

[Alon Shechter]

"I don't know nothing."
I don't get it.

 

[Quite Interesting]

Exception the proves the rule comes from the old meaning of prove which was the same as test

 

[tigermilk]

"Greatest thing since sliced bread." What the hell's so great about bread slices???

I always thought the person/people who split the atom must hate that phrase! "FUCKING HELL I SPLIT THE ATOM AND STILL SLICED BREAD IS THE MEASURE OF BRILLIANCE!!"

 

[MetalDooley]

"I don't know nothing."
I don't get it.

Bad grammar.People use this to imply that they have no knowledge of a particular subject.It's a double negative though so it in fact means that they do have knowledge.The proper thing to say would be "I know nothing"

"less haste more speed"
wait, what?
or even better:
"i dont know 'im for a bar 'o soap"
serously...why?

"Less haste,more speed" - this means that the faster you try to do something the more likely you are to make mistakes which may cause you to have to redo it.Therefore it's better to take your time and do something properly as it ultimately may end up being faster that way

"I don't know 'im from a bar 'o soap" - this just means that you have absolutely no knowledge of a person.No idea what the reference to soap means though.I've heard variations on this one such as "I wouldn't know him from Adam" or "I wouldn't know him from a hole in the ground" both of which mean the same thing but neither makes a whole lot of sense

OT: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" -I get the idea that if your enemy is close you can keep an eye on them but surely you would want your enemies as far away as possible

"The dog's bollocks" - I know it means something is exceptionally good but I'd love for someone to tell me why.What's so great about a canines testicles?

 

[ChippedShoulder]

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>

I hope you're happy, I was getting ready to go to sleep until you showed me that vid. Now I can't stop watching them.

Same friend, this video was posted in another thread. I'm now fully up to date with them and a good few hours deprived of sleep. Love David Mitchell

 

[Ironic Pirate]

"Same difference". Huh?

This one, along with "I could care less," drive me insane. Why? Because they're not the actual sayings - they've somehow been twisted into what they are now, and what they are no makes no sense whatsoever.

"Same difference" is a combination of "same thing" and "big difference." I have no idea what smacktard decided that it was a good idea to go around saying it, but I do know that I first began hearing it several years ago and had never heard it beforehand. Somebody started it, it spread like the plague, and that person needs to be backhanded.

"I could care less" also originally was "I couldn't care less" but likewise some monkey decided to remove the negative in the sentence and yet retained its current meaning. Everyone uses it to convey "I couldn't care less" but the statement itself doesn't actually say that. Whoever first said that should be smacked as well.

Except that "I could care less" still makes sense as a saying, just a different meaning. It's for when you have a tiny little bit of caring, but not much. For example, a tv show you watched a couple times and moderately enjoyed gets cancelled. You care very slightly. You could care less, but not much.

No, it isn't. I could care less could be any amount of caring >0. You could care a great deal and care less, or you could care a tiny bit and care less. It's a saying that only tells us that you do care about something, but not how much you care.

But it's the emphasis on could. I could care less, it's entirely within the realm of possibility, but I already care so little that it is an unlikely eventuality.

 

[Treblaine]

One I used to not understand but do now:

"To have your cake and eat it"

Is apparently a corruption of "To eat your cake and (still) have it" this is "to have" in the present tense and in the possessive tense as In "I have a car" and "I have a cake (on a plate".

The confusion is "to have a cake" has come to mean you have eaten it as in "I had steak for dinner".

Really the idiom is like that of a baker who has a cake they want to sell and also a cake they want to eat as in "You want to eat your cake yet still have your cake left over afterwards"

So the phrase means wanting to have it both ways that defies common sense. Like a business who wants you to pay insurance fee and then pay damages when you try to claim on insurance.

 

[CounterReproductive]

Not necessarily. For example, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. That is a rule. There is no exception to it, and yet it is still a rule. If there was an exception to it, then it would disprove the rule.

Tachyons

 

[Xanadu84]

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

There is the old saying that every rule has an exception. No broad rule is completely infallible. So once you start finding a few exceptions to a rule, it shows that the rule has been critically examined, weaknesses acknowledged, and still deemed to be fairly reliable. Once you know that there are exceptions, but that they are very rare, you can more safely assume that the rule is a strong one that people have tried to poke holes in, but only has a few minor leaks.

Because the bottom if your heart is supposedly deeper down into it.

Then again, that might have made more sense if it was the center and not the bottom. But back when that was invented, everything was measured in up/down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_metaphor

Basically, people understand things as metaphors, and certain concepts imply very fundamental concepts. As we understand basic objects and structures as being strong and solid on the bottom, we understand the idea of bottom to be on a more basic, fundemental, and integral level. You understand the idea of center being this, even though from a definition standpoint, this is irrational. "Bottom" carries similar connotations to "Center". Possibly you are thinking of the metaphor of heart slightly less abstractly? If you think of the heart as a real, physical structure, center makes more sense, while bottom is more easily understood in this case when applied to an abstract concept.

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!

It's a simplification of an older phrase that stated the intent more clearly. Basically what it is saying is, "To both eat your cake and also to have it AFTER YOU EAT IT. If you eat it it is gone, and you no longer have it. So the idea here is a person who wants to benefit from something more then is realistic.

"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.

If you are on a firing range right in front of the target, that is a wrong place. But if it is the right time, say, when no one is shooting, you are fine. But if it is also the wrong time, such as when people are shooting at the targets, you are in trouble, and might get shot. Anyone who happens to be in that target range/wrong place and gets shot will certainly call it the wrong time to be there.

"Made to order"
It is meant to imply that the food is only cooked after you order it. Made to order, literally, means it is already made and then you can order it.
"Not made until you order it" would be a more apt saying

Or, a logical expanding of this phrase would be, "Made to fit your order" or "Made to your orders specifications". Personally, I think that that is the more natural interpretation, and I had to do some serious stretching to understand your interpretation.

"Paying through the nose". I know it means to pay a lot of money, but still!

This one I had to research a tad. Theres a theory about slitting noses being a punishment for tax evaders. More reasonable seems to be the theory that a punch in the nose is a good tactic for collecting outstanding debts. But the best explanation seems to be a pun on the use of the word, "Rhino" being used as slang for money. Also, think Rhinoplasty, and you will see the nose/money connection. Im not sure there is any certainty on this, however.

"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.

You're not being sufficiently Machiavellian An enemy to your enemy can at least be manipulated into furthering your goals. It doesn't always work in practice, but thats why you don't always have to use the saying.

"It's better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all."

Sorry hon, but I've seen what happens to people who love and lose. It ain't pretty!

How many of them then wish they never loved in the first place? Its more of a philosophical disagreement, but certainly is, say, your mother died, you wouldn't wish that you had grown up an orphan.

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

What?

If you want to eat a bird, you can either take 1 dead bird you already have and cook it up, or you can go outside, find a bush where theses a partridge after hours of hunting, take out your gun, and hope that you can kill 1 of those 2 birds. 1 bird already on hand is a lot easier, and probably worth equal to or more then 2 potentially, after a lot of work, birds in the bush.

I think I enjoy trying to explain these too much...

 

[Brandon237]

Actually it does make sense. You say "wrong" because the incident that occured in that particular time and space was undesirable. It is assumed that it is "wrong" for it to happen.

Fight fire with fire-which im sure is awesome but impractical.

It is very practical in open terrain. If something is already burned then it cannot carry the fire further. That's why a controlled, easily put-out fire to burn everything in front of a burning inferno will stop it's advance. You're welcome.

How did you quote him if your post is above his 0.o I'm seriously scared here...
I am ninja'd here, but have your cake and eat it? I can see the logic but it still is stupid because the saying is supposed make cake out as being something you would want to have for a final purpose OTHER than eating... strange strange world of English...

 

[Treblaine]

"I don't know nothing."
I don't get it.

Surely it is well established in English that a double-negative is not necessarily a positive.

This seems to be a combination of "I don't know anything" and "I know nothing".

Don't think of it literally, read it emphatically, the person who says this is being earnest in combining two phrases of denial as in they REALLY know nothing.

 

[Redingold]

Not necessarily. For example, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. That is a rule. There is no exception to it, and yet it is still a rule. If there was an exception to it, then it would disprove the rule.

Tachyons

Demonstrate that they exist, and we'll talk.

 

[Brandon237]

How did you quote him if your post is above his 0.o I'm seriously scared here...

You need to have your forum health meter in the red to be able to do that.

Damnit, I'm not even green I'm so clean... Ah well, no time-travel for me
But honestly, how the hell? I have seen the escapist glitch... but that... damn.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

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

That's from the older meaning of "prove" which is "test" so it's putting the rule to the test.

 

[xchurchx]

I live in cornwall and there are hundreds sayings over here such as A1 meaning im ok
but the one i dont get which i heard my mother speak recently is "Butter wouldn't melt in your mouth" which some how means you are too nice :l how does it?

Your misreading this one, the term in its fullest is more akin to 'she acts like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth'. The phrase is not so much that the person is too good, but rather, they act and present themselves that they are so good, even butter wouldn't melt in their mouth (essentially your claiming you are so good, the impossible is possible)


Hope that helps

Cheers thar friend

 

[Daffy F]

"Paying through the nose". I know it means to pay a lot of money, but still!

I always thought this one was odd...

 

[Shoqiyqa]

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

What?

Wrong way round. A bird in the hand, that you've actually succeeded in catching for dinner, is worth twice as much as one that you know is out there somewhere but haven't actually managed to grab yet.