{"id":8455,"date":"2013-10-02T14:35:59","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T14:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/10\/02\/misused-expressions\/"},"modified":"2013-10-02T14:35:59","modified_gmt":"2013-10-02T14:35:59","slug":"misused-expressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/10\/02\/misused-expressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Misused Expressions"},"content":{"rendered":"

You've  heard of the Soup Nazi.  I'm the Language Nazi.  <\/span><\/p>\n


\n\"Nazi<\/a>1.  Toe<\/em> the line, not: tow the line.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.  Tough row<\/em> to hoe, not: tough road to hoe.  <\/span><\/p>\n

3.  Rack<\/em> one's brains, not: wrack one's brains.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.  Wrack<\/em> and ruin, not: rack and ruin.<\/span><\/p>\n

5.  Flout<\/em> the law, not: flaunt the law.  <\/span><\/p>\n

6.  Give advice<\/em>, not: give advise.  "He advised her to take his advice cum grano salis."<\/span><\/p>\n

7.  Cum grano salis<\/em>, not: cum grano Sallust.  (This one's a joke; I just made it up.)<\/span><\/p>\n

8.  One and<\/em> the same; not: one in the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

9.  Same thing<\/em>, not: same difference.  One of those moronic expressions that is so bad it's good.  Tom: "That's a firefly!"  Dick: "Its a glowbug!"  Jethro:  "Same difference!"  This is not to suggest that there aren't correct uses of 'same difference.'<\/span><\/p>\n

10. Regardless<\/em>, not: irregardless.  Say 'irregardless' and you probably chew tobacco.<\/span><\/p>\n

11. I couldn't<\/em> care less, not: I could care less.  Almost as moronic as (9).<\/span><\/p>\n

Yahoos  seem naturally to gravitate toward double negative constructions which they use as intensifiers.  For example, 'I can't get no satisfaction' to mean can't get any<\/em>.  'No' is an intensifier not a  negator.  "Nothing ain't worth nothing, but it's free."  (Kris Kristofferson)  This is probably what is going on in (9) and (10).  <\/span><\/p>\n

In each case, though, the speaker conveys his meaning.  So does it matter whether one speaks and writes correctly?  Does it matter whether one walks down the street with one's pants half-way down one's butt?  <\/span><\/p>\n

Related:  Quantificational Uses of 'Crap'<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Addenda<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

12.  Tenter hooks<\/em>, not: tender hooks. (Via Monterey Tom)<\/span><\/p>\n

13.  Old fashioned<\/em>, not: old fashion.
<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>On the Misuse of Superlatives (the Brokaw Fallacy) and Two Other Fallacies<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You've  heard of the Soup Nazi.  I'm the Language Nazi.  1.  Toe the line, not: tow the line. 2.  Tough row to hoe, not: tough road to hoe.  3.  Rack one's brains, not: wrack one's brains. 4.  Wrack and ruin, not: rack and ruin. 5.  Flout the law, not: flaunt the law.  6.  Give advice, … Continue reading “Misused Expressions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}