commonly used phrases that confuse you

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I think you’re right. “I could care less” is probably just a corruption of “I couldn’t care less”.

But “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” is supposedly correct.

When I hear this phrase my brain interprets “have your cake” to mean “obtain your cake” which would be a prerequisite for me eating my cake. So the phrase seems to be implying that I can’t obtain my cake if I wish to eat it.

I know “have your cake” is supposed to be interpreted as “possess your cake” but the way it’s worded that’s not what comes to mind.

Sad.

"Go figure".

"Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth."

Maybe when people say "I could care less" they mean "I could care less, but I'm so lazy that I wont bother".

This is a corrupted mis-quotation of the original quote (Shakespere?) of "You can't eat your cake and have it too" meaning you cannot do both - either you possess the cake or you eat the cake - both are independant results of each other.

There are loads of sayings which baffle me - until I have them worked out. "Totally inconsistant" appears to be a paradox to me.

"You're making a mountain out of a molehill"

This is supposed to be " It goes to show, you never can tell about some people."

It means that people's lives are hidden, even from those they love. I think it was from a novel where either a man killed himself or his entire family and this was a line from one of the neighbors.

It can be used as you placed it, to mean that things are hidden. Or that surprises can come out of the nowhere.

It (this situation) goes to show (tells you) (that) you never can tell (what is really going on)

Same difference is a lazy shortened way of saying "It is/has the same difference" I used to say it myself. slang goes in and out of style.

It got cute for a while, now it is just vaguely annoying.

It's "What goes around comes around" and is the basic principle behind karma, every action you do has a reaction. Only for the purposes of this sentence think of it like a merry-go-round. You do something, place it on the merry-go-round at one place, wait ten to twenty seconds and you should be able to pick it up again, when it comes back around.

butter melts at fairly low temperatures, you can hold it in you hand and melt it.

This sentence implies that the girl is cold, without warmth, frigid even. Not warm, loving or sweet. Usually said with a snide voice.

"Fixin" As in
"I'm fixin to go down to the store and get some bread".

Or "I'm fixin to go put on my shoes".

How does one fix to do something?

Or another one I heard allot growing up: "You're getting on my last nerve". or "I have had it up to here". Up to where exactly, and what exactly have you had up to that point.

Worn out phrases are not warm embraces topic

I like visual metaphors, because I have figured out how to make them ironic and literal. They are also used in standard IQ tests.

Example:
A chip off the old block. You can imagine an old piece of granite and a small proportion of it chipped off. You see the small piece is from the large piece, as a child is born from a parent. It is a metaphor, a symbolic representation of a reality. I learned metaphoric speech a long time ago and kept practicing the skill.

It helps if you can visualize the process.

I imagine the bit if rock being knocked of the larger boulder.

I enjoy these sayings, and I often improve/alter them to suit what I want to say. It gets NTs puzzled!! !

Some of them are cultural, and specific to certain faiths/ethnic groups.

Another one: One swallow does not make a summer.

A person has to know that a swallow is a bird, not the voluntary act of food passing down the throat! Do not choke on your own words! Another one! Ha!

At any rate, One swallow is another way of saying to not jump to conclusions. At the supposed end of a dreary spring you may see a bird you have heretofore seen as a harbinger of the summer season. If someone says to you: "I have seen a swallow. Oh! This means summer is here," you can reply that just because you see one swallow, this does not mean summer is here. You need to consider other species as well. One thing does not necessarily follow another. You could have a non sequitur on your hands!

Thank you for your patience. I tend to analyze because I help children with their homework and this is how I help them, by teaching them how to analyze.

Remember, most of our speech is metaphor. Words stand in for ideas that are often visual. Humans communicate with language. I know I think in pictures and then translate. This is why much of my language is phrasey/contrived/picturesque!! !

Last edited by sartresue on 18 Mar 2008, 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

'Confusious' says topic

I will add a few more pearls of wisdom!

I am fixing to do such and such.[Many people have led lives where they do not talk much except having to do with their occupation. A person who works with his/her hands might make up a saying and it gets shared. So a person who is fixing to put on a pair of shoes and do something is completing one task before doing another, either literally or metaphorically:

I will fix these shoes before I wear them.

I will put on these shoes and go fix what I have to do before I go someplace else or have to do something else.

I will put on these shoes and go fix what I have to do in order to be able to do something else.

Many people verbalize their thought as I do and as I do they may use phrases in their self talk in order to reinforce what they are doing. I know this always drives the NTs batty (flying around, flapping, impatiently, dramatic. Why batty? sounds funnier than birdlike!)

Words are just like toys to me. Stimming, too.

If you have any questions, please reply in this forum!

Weird. How can they be the same? It doesn't make any sense.

IMO, the only possible explanation is that the phrase, slightly corrupted, came before the meaning. The phrase "Could care less" came out wrong but 'stuck' anyways.

we call them Rickyisms here in Canada

We can get 2 birds stoned at once (kill 2 birds with one stone)
He passed with flying carpets (colors)
It doesn't take rocket appliances (science)
Rocket surgery (Brain surgery)
Do you got a search warranty for that (warrant)
I must be fire ret*d or something (retardant)
I'm not a pezmist, I'm an optometrist (Pessimist, Optimist)
What goes around is all around (comes around)
Trinity's at the age where it's gorilla see gorilla do (monkey)
It was golfing flames, flames golfing out the side (engulfed in)
Hey Bubs are you watching that documentary on Saskatchewans? (Sasquatches)
Yeah get me some jalapano chips [pronounced ja-LAP-ano] (jalapeño)
Worst case Ontario... (scenario)

Rickyisms are from the Trailer Park Boys Tv show here in Canada

Bats in the Belfry says this was in fact American in origin, and quite recent.