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Words don't always mean you think. Or do they?

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Skullmeister

Skullmeister

Technical User
Jul 11, 2004
10
US
Why do we park in the driveway, and drive on the parkway?

If drivers speed on the highway, do stockcar drivers get high on the speedway?
 
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Why do they call them apartments when they're so close together?

How come we send cargo by ship and shipments by truck?

How can you possibly "raze" something to the ground? Oh wait, I see... you burnt it up and you burnt it down!
 
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Doesn't raze come from the same root as razor? It's when it's wriiten "raise to the ground" that I find it makes no sense.

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert
 
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Oops, bad forum for a typo! Yes, I did mean written!

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert
 
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Why does your nose run and your feet smell?
How can you "draw a blank"?
Why are there Interstate Highways in Hawaii?
Why isn't "palindrome" spelled the same way backwards?

Susan
[green]Gramen artificiosum odi. [/green]
 
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When you no longer have any, how can you say "I ran out"?

[sup]Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.[/sup][sup] ~George Bernard Shaw[/sup]
Systems Project Analyst/Custom Forms & PL/SQL - Oracle/Windows
 
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Why are flammable and inflammable synonyms?

What about the word "presently" which can either mean "right now" or "soon"?

Why isn't phoentic spelled like it sounds?
 
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Why do we park in the driveway, and drive on the parkway?
Click to expand...

I have answered this before elsewhere.
It's very simple, the average speed during rush hour on the parkway is close enough to 0 as to be considered 0 meaning you're effectively parked there.
That makes the average speed on your driveway (which you have to drive onto and away from) higher :)
 
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Oh oh Oohh, I know one!

Jwenting's post has reminded me of one that intrigues me every day...

Why do we call it the rush hour? slow hour would be more like it . . .
 
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Around here it would be the slow hours because they last from 6:00 to 9:00 in the morning and 3:30 to 6:30 at night.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874
 
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In the British and American armed forces, a Major is two grades above a Lietenant. And a Major-General is one grade below a Lietenant-General.

(This actually comes from accidents of naming during the English Civil War, with 'Major' being used inconsistently for many different roles.)

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A view from the UK
 
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In Britain, a Public School is a fee-paying school ratehr than a school run by a public authority.

Code: 
 [white]
Which actually means it is subject to outside supervision.  George Orwell's [b]A Clergyman's Daughter[/b] includes a lot about the extinct third sector, Private Schools which anyone was allowed to start and no one could check or grade.
[/white]

The above gives a possible explanation, if you want to highlight it. (See Wordplay for an explanation of how it's done

------------------
A view from the UK
 
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I've always wondered why the word "monosyllabic" has so many syllables.
 
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Actually, GwydionM, in Scotland the term 'Private School' is used to mean a private (fee-paying) school and 'state' is used to refer to the state-run schools. Though the term 'Public School' is not unknown - we are very clsoe to England, after all!

What I'd really like to know is, why is 'dyslexia' so hard to spell?
 
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I've always said we have the best parking lots in the world - they are called highways.
 
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Ok, has anyone ever felt gruntled?


DonBott

take two of these and call me in the morning
 
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