Post saying/phrases that make no sense!

[southsamurai]

the other side of "break a leg is also theatre based. it is considered bad luck to wish someone well when they are going to perform, so instead you wish them something bad, break a leg is used as the common one because of the previous explanation

 

[mynameisbob84]

"I could care less"

"I couldn't care less" - while hyperbolic and maybe a little disingenuous - leaves no room for ambiguity. You don't care. Fine. Let's move on.

But... "I could care less"?... well... okay, what does that mean? Do you care or don't you? How much do you care? A little? A lot? I understand you could care less but that doesn't really tell me much.

 

[SoTxBob]

so many that I always seem to notice when out and about.... but right now all the comes to mind is .....

"word'....

 

[AmberCutie]

I don't really understand the use of "fuck all" to mean nothing. I mean, it sounds cool, but to me fuck all sounds like a lot of action, not a lack of action.

"I did fuck all today". Sounds like I did a lot of fucking.

 

[camstory]

'i'd hit that'
i don't like to be hit, why would you want to? :crybaby:

'shooting the breeze'
who shoots at air? hmmm :?

'back to square one'
i just don't even understand wtf that comes from :lol: where are all the other squares?

Both very good

 

[LadyLuna]

I believe "back to square one" comes from board games where the object is to get to the last square. Often if you land on certain squares you have to go back a certain number of squares. There was almost always one halfway through that would send you back to the first square, in which sense you were having to start the game all over again.

I could be wrong, but it really makes sense if you think of it that way.

 

[camstory]

Good thread.

Two expressions that I think are very interesting, that I don't think a lot of ppl are aware of their origins are "Dead ringer" and what is now most often used as the peace sign but originally was used as the victory sign, and no it has nothing to do with V for victory. Both very interesting IMO, and I would post their meaning but both are rather complex and I don't want to get any details wrong, but well worth a googling.

 

[camstory]

Was doing the dishes, (like my own meditation, friends invite me over at times just to do their dishes I think :lol: ), and I think it pop into my mind how, "hit that" came to be. I think it Polly went like this.

Dude 1 " Dam bro I would love to tap that ass"
Dude 2 " Shit, tap it, I'd straight hit that ass" :mrgreen:

 

[Nordling]

I really like what I assume is a Britishism:

"Arsed" meaning bothered. "I can't be arsed to take out the trash."

 

[RoseCavilla]

"Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps."

Meaning to accomplish things on your own, without outside help. Even a swami can't levitate that way.

Ooh oh I'm going to be a smart ass now.

This is partially possible; you can lie on your back and pull your legs up by your bootstraps till your bum's in the air. Your legs are a part of your physical "self", therefore you are pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. Yay loopholes!

 

[RoseCavilla]

I really like what I assume is a Britishism:

"Arsed" meaning bothered. "I can't be arsed to take out the trash."

Yes! I believe it is. My mother use to tell me little brother constantly, "Stop arsing me, boy!" I'm not certain if it's widely used as a verb in the UK, but I have heard it there for sure. I haven't heard it used to mean "bother", my mum just used it to tell my brother to stop bull shitting her.

 

[camstory]

"I could care less"

"I couldn't care less" - while hyperbolic and maybe a little disingenuous - leaves no room for ambiguity. You don't care. Fine. Let's move on.

But... "I could care less"?... well... okay, what does that mean? Do you care or don't you? How much do you care? A little? A lot? I understand you could care less but that doesn't really tell me much.

This one I think may have developed from the somewhat antiquated saying, "I could care not" To which one wanting to show 100% agreement might reply, "I could care less"

 

[Nordling]

"Pay through the nose."

To pay so much for something that it does damage to your bank account. I'm guessing it's the idea that if money came out of your nose, it might be painful.

 

[LilyMarie]

Break a leg.
Cuz, you know, being in a cast and on crutches is such a wonderful thing.

I can answer this one! Putting on my theatre nerd glasses here... :geek:

Back in the day theatre stages were tilted slightly so that the back of the stage was higher than the front of the stage. If you were looking at it from the side it would look like this: \ This was so the audience could see the action in the back better from the floor view. It's also why the back of the stage is called "upstage" and why the front is "downstage". Anywho, the idea behind Break a Leg is that you'll have such a good show that you'll get a standing ovation and have to come to the downstage so many times that you'll slip off and break your leg. Still kind of fucked up and unpleasant, but it makes a bit more sense in that context. </nerding out>

Little fun fact... In German, you say 'break your leg and your neck' before someone needs to perform. So weird.

 

[lordmagellan]

Break a leg.
Cuz, you know, being in a cast and on crutches is such a wonderful thing.

I can answer this one! Putting on my theatre nerd glasses here... :geek:

Back in the day theatre stages were tilted slightly so that the back of the stage was higher than the front of the stage. If you were looking at it from the side it would look like this: \ This was so the audience could see the action in the back better from the floor view. It's also why the back of the stage is called "upstage" and why the front is "downstage". Anywho, the idea behind Break a Leg is that you'll have such a good show that you'll get a standing ovation and have to come to the downstage so many times that you'll slip off and break your leg. Still kind of fucked up and unpleasant, but it makes a bit more sense in that context. </nerding out>

Little fun fact... In German, you say 'break your leg and your neck' before someone needs to perform. So weird.

Germans like to be thorough. I thought this was understood.

 

[Nordling]

I always took it (break a leg) as a reversal of "Murphy's Law." The idea that wishing for something or being positive about an outcome will doom it, so that wishing for a negative outcome will guarantee a positive one.

 

[camstory]

Break a leg.
Cuz, you know, being in a cast and on crutches is such a wonderful thing.

I can answer this one! Putting on my theatre nerd glasses here... :geek:

Back in the day theatre stages were tilted slightly so that the back of the stage was higher than the front of the stage. If you were looking at it from the side it would look like this: \ This was so the audience could see the action in the back better from the floor view. It's also why the back of the stage is called "upstage" and why the front is "downstage". Anywho, the idea behind Break a Leg is that you'll have such a good show that you'll get a standing ovation and have to come to the downstage so many times that you'll slip off and break your leg. Still kind of fucked up and unpleasant, but it makes a bit more sense in that context. </nerding out>

Little fun fact... In German, you say 'break your leg and your neck' before someone needs to perform. So weird.

Germans like to be thorough. I thought this was understood.

Oh so very true :lol: my step mom of 20+ years is German, and I love her, but oh my how attention to detail Germans are, it is a good thing, no one else can produce a Beamer, or a Mercedes. I really like all things German, including you Lyli.

 

[AshleyMarks]

"my nipples could cut glass"-Let's try this scenario...Nope. They only rub the glass and leave smudge marks.
"It's colder than a witch's tit"-I had no idea people just went around feeling on witch tits to check their temperature.
"Like a deer caught in headlights"-Deer usually get hit by a car and total it if they get dazed by headlights.
"softer than a baby's bottom"- Why?? Don't even! How would you know?
"brownie points"- Do we get brownies? Yum. I know brownie points mean something similar to..
"brown noser"- He has his nose stuck up someone's ass.
"You Only Live Once"- No way! I had no idea we had multiple lives.
"In the doghouse"- uh oh, someone is in trouble it seems.
"viete a la mierda"- Loosely translated, it means go to shit in Spanish. However, Google translate says it means viete to fuck. Like what the fuck.
Warning! I am not cussing at your mother....
"chingun su madre"- Or fuck your mother when translated. However, lots of people use it to only say fuck you.
"It's the bee's knees"- Oh, so bee knees, although rather small are turned into this positive quote.
How can you see bee's knees, and do they even have knees?

Just a few I could think of. Rather funny though.

 

[RoseCavilla]

.
"viete a la mierda"- Loosely translated, it means go to shit in Spanish. However, Google translate says it means viete to fuck. Like what the fuck.

I think that's because it's spelled and pronounced without an "i", so it's "vete". Not sure why, but this is a command to go away. Although I've never heard it used with "a la". Pretty sure that's meant "para", which means "in order to" next to a verb. "Vete a la Mierda" means "go to the shit".

Hispanics seriously have like 20,words for "shit". To say "he doesn't give a shit" you say "he doesn't give an egg". Soo weird.

 

[camstory]

Beauty sleep. The longer I sleep the worse I look. My goodness I look like hell after about 12 hours. :lol:

 

[Keithy]

And here I was hoping for a thread more along the lines of:
"Kid, I'll burp on your girl butt cheeks." said by Method Man. Any girls like having their butt burped on? Is this a thing?
"I was born with a dick in my brain." by Eminem.
"Get off my brand new dick." by Kanye, because his dick, he finally got one.

I always took it (break a leg) as a reversal of "Murphy's Law." The idea that wishing for something or being positive about an outcome will doom it, so that wishing for a negative outcome will guarantee a positive one.

It is. The idea being saying "good luck" will jinx the performer, thus the opposite was born.

 

[camstory]

Not the first time I have been off thread here, cuz I keep posting phrases I like that to me make sense, so here's another, " madder than a stepped on baby."

 

[AnaVictoriaXO]

What about "we're just bullshitting"

I dont know man, Im having a conversation, not bullshitting anyone :lol:

 

[RedGrapefruit]

Break a leg.
Cuz, you know, being in a cast and on crutches is such a wonderful thing.

I can answer this one! Putting on my theatre nerd glasses here... :geek:

Back in the day theatre stages were tilted slightly so that the back of the stage was higher than the front of the stage. If you were looking at it from the side it would look like this: \ This was so the audience could see the action in the back better from the floor view. It's also why the back of the stage is called "upstage" and why the front is "downstage". Anywho, the idea behind Break a Leg is that you'll have such a good show that you'll get a standing ovation and have to come to the downstage so many times that you'll slip off and break your leg. Still kind of fucked up and unpleasant, but it makes a bit more sense in that context. </nerding out>

Little fun fact... In German, you say 'break your leg and your neck' before someone needs to perform. So weird.

Very cute. I'm gonna steal that. In high school we used to say "Break both legs and arms...maybe some teeth too!"

 

[Just Me]

"Dark side of the moon" Great album, inaccurate term.

"She's built like a brick shit house" I have never understood this term or how it could be used as a positive way to describe a woman.

"Her legs all the way up (or something like that" Where would they stop otherwise?

"Same difference" Usually used only when something is pointed out as being different and in no way similar.

I remember it was sort of a thing to say that something was "redundant" because the kids learned a new word that week, which really they didn't because they were using it in place of "stupid," thereby proving themselves to be stupid- and redundant, since the world is full of stupid people.

I feel cynical.

Ha! The "brick shithouse" one is incomplete...originally, it was "she's built like a brick shithouse--stacked." Because "stacked" was an old slang term referring to the size of a woman's breasts. Eventually, guys dropped the "stacked" and the phrase became even less meaningful.

Just to be pedantic about this one. Stacked was never used when saying this, it is implied from the saying. Though the Commodores did sing "The lady's stacked and that's a fact" in their song Brick House.
The Straight Dope

From the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang we learn that: (a) the phrase and its euphemistic variants date back at least to 1903; (b) said variants replace "shithouse" with switch shanty, schoolhouse, slaughterhouse, or backhouse, among others; and (c) all were originally--and more sensibly--applied to men of solid or powerful build. When said of women, one 1938 source notes, the phrase usually meant a "heavy, cloddish, sexually unappetizing female." But even in the 1930s a few wiseguys were applying it to attractive women, and in the U.S. that usage has now supplanted all others.

For the most part, all these phrases make sense when you learn their etymology. That takes the fun out of it I suppose. :lol:

Here are a couple that make no sense to me:
Taking a piss. It is a very British. I do not understand why it means they are making fun of you or joking with you.
Happy as a clam. Clams are known to be happy and jovial?

 

[Nordling]

I have to take exception to pedantry. We're talking about FOLK etymology and dictionaries can never be expected to be complete or list every local usage. Often, if not always, dictionaries tend to trace the roots of words and phrases via literature and pay little heed to the oral traditions of locals.

"Stacked like a brick outhouse" is what I heard constantly as a teenager.

Not sure what "take a piss" means in the UK, but where I came from in the US, it simply meant to urinate. Although taken literally it's illogical.

And "happy as a claim" is another example of a term that loses meaning due to folks shortening the phrase over time... I always heard it as a kid as "happy as a clam at high tide." Which makes sense.

 

[Just Me]

I have to take exception to pedantry. We're talking about FOLK etymology and dictionaries can never be expected to be complete or list every local usage. Often, if not always, dictionaries tend to trace the roots of words and phrases via literature and pay little heed to the oral traditions of locals.

"Stacked like a brick outhouse" is what I heard constantly as a teenager.

Not sure what "take a piss" means in the UK, but where I came from in the US, it simply meant to urinate. Although taken literally it's illogical.

And "happy as a claim" is another example of a term that loses meaning due to folks shortening the phrase over time... I always heard it as a kid as "happy as a clam at high tide." Which makes sense.

Ahh but I have to take exception to your exception of pedantry. :lol: You did state it was shortened but that would only be true if the OP's oral tradition was the same as yours. :twocents-02cents:

 

[Nordling]

I have to take exception to pedantry. We're talking about FOLK etymology and dictionaries can never be expected to be complete or list every local usage. Often, if not always, dictionaries tend to trace the roots of words and phrases via literature and pay little heed to the oral traditions of locals.

"Stacked like a brick outhouse" is what I heard constantly as a teenager.

Not sure what "take a piss" means in the UK, but where I came from in the US, it simply meant to urinate. Although taken literally it's illogical.

And "happy as a claim" is another example of a term that loses meaning due to folks shortening the phrase over time... I always heard it as a kid as "happy as a clam at high tide." Which makes sense.

Ahh but I have to take exception to your exception of pedantry. :lol: You did state it was shortened but that would only be true if the OP's oral tradition was the same as yours. :twocents-02cents:

Touché! Good point, and we'll never know for sure...because that's the nature of folk traditions...the true origins may never be disclosed, plus some phrases may have originated more than once, and when we assume they have the same origin, the history becomes fogged.

 

[WildFingers]

"you don't know Shit from shineola."
Shineola?

 

[Kunra9]

You really put your foot in your mouth on that one.

wtf?? That's not exactly an easy thing to accomplish for most people, but wtf does putting your foot in your mouth have to do with anything?