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Nonsensical idioms 1

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sleipnir214

sleipnir214

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May 6, 2002
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I have had a multiyear ongoing debate with an Australian friend of mine who uses the idiom "flat as a tack". I've pointed out on numerous occasions that the salient feature of a tack is that it's sharp, not flat.

Does anyone have another example of an idiom that seems to defy common sense?

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Counter-intuitive idioms that come to mind:

If something's likely to be unpopular, you might hear people say "it'll go down like a lead balloon" meaning that it won't go down very well. The odd thing is that balloons made of lead have no trouble going down, just the opposite. As a more logical (if gross) alternative, a colleague of mine uses the expression "it'll go down like a cup of cold sick" instead.

Similarly, in computing circles (lordy, a computing reference in this thread?!) you might say of a slow-running program "it runs like a dog". Dogs, in my experience, are rather good at running. Being a born pedant (and a cat person anyway) I've coined the variation "it runs like a dog with no legs".

On the subject of pedantry, I have to correct this:
sleipnir214 said:
The "Band of Brothers" monologue is a survivor of the Battle of Agincourt talking about his experiences.
Click to expand...
It's not. It's from Henry's speech in Act IV scene iii just before the battle:
...
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Click to expand...
Ah, I love the sound of Shakespeare in the morning! Full text here:
-- Chris Hunt
 
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ChrisHunt:
You're right -- I got that one way off. It'll teach me to refresh my familiarity with the script before I speak -- it had been more than 20 years since the last time I read Henry the Fifth. I spent some time in the U.S. military, and that speech tends to stick in the mind of military folk, even if not the details.

As an aside, there is a US-made movie, Renaissance Man, which has one of the best renditions of the "Band of Brothers" monologue I have ever heard.



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One that's had a whole group of us arguing this afternoon, "blue murder".

Not "screaming blue murder" which seems to have a french derivation.

But as in "getting away with blue murder", or, "getting away with blue bloody murder". (Is this a peculiarly british expression? It doesn't seem to appear in the lists of phrases I've found.) I can find plenty of useage but no definition.

I don't think the two are from the same root, though I'm quite prepared to be proved wrong.



Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)
 
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Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable goes with the French derivation theory for blue murder (and for "to shout blue murder. It also suggests an allusion to "blue ruin". Brewer later reveals this to be "Gin. Called blue from its tint, and ruin from its effects

Other sources seem to indicate that "getting away with blue murder" is derived from two sayings, although I can't seem to find anything authorative
 
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Here's an idiom that makes less sense the more I think about it: American rules football.

(For those not familiar with the game) in American rules football, only one person from each team is allowed to intentionally move the ball with his feet -- and the kicker is only on the field for certain special-purpose plays. All other players are required to move the ball with their hands.



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I have watched Australian Rules Football, but never heard of American Rules Football... Is it being played somewhere in the USA?
 
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It's played largely everywhere in the US.

Football, baseball, and basketball are the three most popular sports in the U.S. (Not necessarily in that order -- I don't know what the order would be.)

The US national football championship, called the Superbowl, is televised globally every year. I don't remember where you live, Dimandja, but it might be available -- if at 03:00 your local time some year.



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sleipnir214,

I currently do live in the USA. It's just that I never knew that the Redskins were playing 'Rules Football'. I always simply called it 'Football'. (Of course, 'real' Football is called 'soccer' here.)

Dimandja
 
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I use the term "American rules football" specifically because the term is locally defined. In terms of population, football soccer on the global scale.

But the U.S., the U.K., and Australia all have their local definitions. But the U.S. variant is the only one where you aren't supposed to use your feet.



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And the ball isn't spherical.

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)
 
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No, it's not spherical, just as in Rugby, the ball is a prolate spheroid.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
 
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I don't follow sports, but I'm aware of how they are played. What I really don't understand is why people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to watch people that make millions of dollars run around a field or a court.

[ponder]

Glen A. Johnson
If you're from Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin feel free to join the Tek-Tips in Chicago, Illinois Forum.

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Johnson Computers
 
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CajunCenturion
So rather than "football", "hand-prolate-spheroid"... doesn't quite have the same oomph.

(Rugby, by name makes no claim to a ball - I'll not repeat my rugby-playing colleagues comments about American Football as a sport, they'd probably get me banned.)


Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)
 
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In defense of the name football, all of the scoring records are held by placekickers.

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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
 
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That, I think, is a more a function of professional logevity than anything. Kickers are the only players on a team that aren't regularly pounded into mulch.



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GlenJohnson: What I really don't understand is why people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to watch people that make millions of dollars run around a field or a court.
Click to expand...

Glen,

I think you may enjoy the sport better in third world countries where the players are not millionaires. If their salaries are what you are objecting to, of course.

But, why shouldn't these players make good money when everybody else is handsomely benefitting from their prouesse on the turf?

Dimandja

 
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One that struck me last night... I need to extract my chap's black leather waistcoat from him for 2 weeks to get it re-lined (as a belated Christmas present, it's another story why it's taking me so long to sort out his christmas present).. and for some reason the expression "like taking candy off a baby" came to mind - in the sense that he'd make a lot of fuss about it. Which is **not** the sense in which the expression is normally used - it is used to say something is very easy. I wanted to use it in the sense that he would make a big fuss and make me feel like a very very bad person for depriving him of his waistcoat for 2 weeks. (the job is being done while I am on holiday for 2 weeks without him - I wonder which he'll miss more, me or the waistcoat?)
 
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