Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[abefroman329]

Just now, I realized I've been using the expression "go to the mat" as a synonym for "argue unnecessarily," thinking it had to do with wrestling.  The only similar expression I've heard of is "go to the mattresses," which is a Mafia term for "going to war" used in The Godfather and demonstrated in the last episode or two of The Sopranos, among other places.

Did I just make up that expression?

[1]

Just now, I realized I've been using the expression "go to the mat" as a synonym for "argue unnecessarily," thinking it had to do with wrestling.  The only similar expression I've heard of is "go to the mattresses," which is a Mafia term for "going to war" used in The Godfather and demonstrated in the last episode or two of The Sopranos, among other places.

Did I just make up that expression?

It exists, but you might be misunderstanding its meaning. It's not the same as the "mattresses" version, though. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/go_to_the_mat

[formulanone]

"For all intensive purposes..."

I had a co-worker and he admitted that he'd been hearing, saying, and writing it all wrong for well over 20 years.

[mgk920]

"For all intensive purposes..."

I had a co-worker and he admitted that he'd been hearing, saying, and writing it all wrong for well over 20 years.

"Decimate" to mean something other than relating to the old Roman military punishment of removing every tenth soldier in a line.

Mike

[formulanone]

"For all intensive purposes..."

I had a co-worker and he admitted that he'd been hearing, saying, and writing it all wrong for well over 20 years.

"Decimate" to mean something other than relating to the old Roman military punishment of removing every tenth soldier in a line.

Mike

So, Michael...words can only keep the same solitary meaning, spelling, and pronunciation for centuries before and the eons to come?

[tchafe1978]

"Dominate" when they mean "dominant"
"Worse" when they mean "worst"
"Looser" when they mean "loser"

There are all sorts of these where the pronounciation can get kind of muddled, so when people write them out they write the wrong form of the word. And mixing up your and you're and there, they're, and their have become so commonplace I almost expect it anymore.

[1]

"Looser" when they mean "loser"

looseweight.com was once a website. (Well, it still is, but it's a parked domain right now.)

"Decimate" to mean something other than relating to the old Roman military punishment of removing every tenth soldier in a line.

I'm fine with "decimate" in any "1/10" context (not just the historical Roman usage), although not for its colloquial meaning. For example, this card uses the word correctly (players begin at 20 life, (usually) start with 60 cards, and 10 poison counters cause a game loss; this card is 1/10 for all of them).

[webny99]

One saying that could be either of two totally different sets of words and work fine either way:

"Might as well" <> "Minus while"

[ethanhopkin14]

You got another thing coming.

No

It's "You got another think coming", because it's usually a response to someone saying "I think you should (insert job there is no way in crap I am doing)."

[ethanhopkin14]

....

butt naked vs. buck naked.  That one really infuriates me because I feel like it is the embodiment of my generation.  Hear something said, lazily repeat it and not really get it correct but think you nailed it, and never do the research on the saying and where it actually came from and why. 

That one is an example of a popular usage that is incorrect but that, in some ways, might not be such a bad change. The term "buck" was historically used as a way of referring to male slaves and acquired negative connotations as a result, such that "buck naked" often referred to slaves toiling naked in the cotton fields.

I have come to the conclusion that every thing, song, saying, statue, building or famous baseball player had something to do with slavery or racism.

I just found out a few months ago "grandfather clause" was a reference to a clause about rights (or lack thereof) black people had if they were the grandchildren of a slave.  Here I was thinking it was about Tim "The Rock" Raines being the last baseball player to bat with a helmet with no earflaps because he was allowed to continue to wear it since he started playing before they changed the rules to demand at least on earflap on a batting helmet!

[hbelkins]

You got another thing coming.

No

It's "You got another think coming", because it's usually a response to someone saying "I think you should (insert job there is no way in crap I am doing)."

First I've ever heard of this, but shouldn't it really be "another thought coming" if used in this context?

Also:

[abefroman329]

....

butt naked vs. buck naked.  That one really infuriates me because I feel like it is the embodiment of my generation.  Hear something said, lazily repeat it and not really get it correct but think you nailed it, and never do the research on the saying and where it actually came from and why. 

That one is an example of a popular usage that is incorrect but that, in some ways, might not be such a bad change. The term "buck" was historically used as a way of referring to male slaves and acquired negative connotations as a result, such that "buck naked" often referred to slaves toiling naked in the cotton fields.

I have come to the conclusion that every thing, song, saying, statue, building or famous baseball player had something to do with slavery or racism.

I just found out a few months ago "grandfather clause" was a reference to a clause about rights (or lack thereof) black people had if they were the grandchildren of a slave.  Here I was thinking it was about Tim "The Rock" Raines being the last baseball player to bat with a helmet with no earflaps because he was allowed to continue to wear it since he started playing before they changed the rules to demand at least on earflap on a batting helmet!

"Grandfather clause" isn't limited to sports; hell, it's not even limited to baseball.  There were NHL players in the 80s or 90s that weren't wearing helmets, because they joined the league before they were required.

The phrase I've been trying very hard to eliminate from my vocabulary is "basket case."  Not because it's racist, though; it was coined in World War I and was used to describe a soldier who lost his arms and legs in battle.

[kkt]

"For all intensive purposes..."

I had a co-worker and he admitted that he'd been hearing, saying, and writing it all wrong for well over 20 years.

"Decimate" to mean something other than relating to the old Roman military punishment of removing every tenth soldier in a line.

Mike

So, Michael...words can only keep the same solitary meaning, spelling, and pronunciation for centuries before and the eons to come?

Words and phrases certainly evolve, but I like it better when the evolution is done on purpose by people who knew what the existing phrase was and deliberately chose to extend or modify it, rather than someone who misheard it or didn't understand it in the first place.

[mgk920]

Not just with batting helmets, but many other sports rules changes were 'grandfathered' in too, like requiring helmets on players in the NHL, the 'spitball' in baseball pitching, etc.

Mike

[abefroman329]

Not just with batting helmets, but many other sports rules changes were 'grandfathered' in too, like requiring helmets on players in the NHL

You don't say.

[1995hoo]

The similar example from today's NHL would be the visor (face shield). The league made visors mandatory ahead of the 2013–14 season; all players who had 25 or fewer games of NHL experience were required to wear a visor from then on, as were any new players entering the league, but any player who had 26 or more games of NHL experience as of that time was (and is) permitted to skip the visor if he wishes. I believe there are at most ten players remaining who don't wear them.

As an aside, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis has commented on how it tells you something about the male brain that the protective cup has been in universal use for over 100 years, yet the hockey helmet only became universal when Craig MacTavish retired in 1997.

[GaryV]

People are grandfathered in to some laws and regulations as well. A typical one would be a zoning ordinance that was created or changed after you owned the house.

[ethanhopkin14]

....

butt naked vs. buck naked.  That one really infuriates me because I feel like it is the embodiment of my generation.  Hear something said, lazily repeat it and not really get it correct but think you nailed it, and never do the research on the saying and where it actually came from and why. 

That one is an example of a popular usage that is incorrect but that, in some ways, might not be such a bad change. The term "buck" was historically used as a way of referring to male slaves and acquired negative connotations as a result, such that "buck naked" often referred to slaves toiling naked in the cotton fields.

I have come to the conclusion that every thing, song, saying, statue, building or famous baseball player had something to do with slavery or racism.

I just found out a few months ago "grandfather clause" was a reference to a clause about rights (or lack thereof) black people had if they were the grandchildren of a slave.  Here I was thinking it was about Tim "The Rock" Raines being the last baseball player to bat with a helmet with no earflaps because he was allowed to continue to wear it since he started playing before they changed the rules to demand at least on earflap on a batting helmet!

"Grandfather clause" isn't limited to sports; hell, it's not even limited to baseball.  There were NHL players in the 80s or 90s that weren't wearing helmets, because they joined the league before they were required.

The phrase I've been trying very hard to eliminate from my vocabulary is "basket case."  Not because it's racist, though; it was coined in World War I and was used to describe a soldier who lost his arms and legs in battle.

Okay, this was a poor excuse of a joke of pointing out how I thought the term "grandfather clause" meant someone who was allowed to continue operating anything under an old set of rules because of tenure after a change of rules to newer individuals was established.  Whether that be laws, machinery operating rules or fixed mortgagees that don't fluctuate when the market does.  I threw the thing in about Tim Raines as a joke on my complete ignorance to it having any sort of slavery connotation.

Once again, the written word does seem to skip the snarky and dry witted jokes.  I, not for one second, thought that "grandfather clause" actually was exclusive to baseball.  I operated under a grandfather clause in my job twenty years ago by being able to qualify for something under my current (at the time) met education requirements that a rule passed that if I had not started the program before the change, I wouldn't have qualified for.  Trust me, I am aware. 

[Scott5114]

I have come to the conclusion that every thing, song, saying, statue, building or famous baseball player had something to do with slavery or racism.

That's because...well, it does. Or did, anyway. It was such a large part of American life in the South during the time that it was legal that it influenced damn near everything in this country.

[abefroman329]

....

butt naked vs. buck naked.  That one really infuriates me because I feel like it is the embodiment of my generation.  Hear something said, lazily repeat it and not really get it correct but think you nailed it, and never do the research on the saying and where it actually came from and why. 

That one is an example of a popular usage that is incorrect but that, in some ways, might not be such a bad change. The term "buck" was historically used as a way of referring to male slaves and acquired negative connotations as a result, such that "buck naked" often referred to slaves toiling naked in the cotton fields.

I have come to the conclusion that every thing, song, saying, statue, building or famous baseball player had something to do with slavery or racism.

I just found out a few months ago "grandfather clause" was a reference to a clause about rights (or lack thereof) black people had if they were the grandchildren of a slave.  Here I was thinking it was about Tim "The Rock" Raines being the last baseball player to bat with a helmet with no earflaps because he was allowed to continue to wear it since he started playing before they changed the rules to demand at least on earflap on a batting helmet!

"Grandfather clause" isn't limited to sports; hell, it's not even limited to baseball.  There were NHL players in the 80s or 90s that weren't wearing helmets, because they joined the league before they were required.

The phrase I've been trying very hard to eliminate from my vocabulary is "basket case."  Not because it's racist, though; it was coined in World War I and was used to describe a soldier who lost his arms and legs in battle.

Okay, this was a poor excuse of a joke of pointing out how I thought the term "grandfather clause" meant someone who was allowed to continue operating anything under an old set of rules because of tenure after a change of rules to newer individuals was established.  Whether that be laws, machinery operating rules or fixed mortgagees that don't fluctuate when the market does.  I threw the thing in about Tim Raines as a joke on my complete ignorance to it having any sort of slavery connotation.

Once again, the written word does seem to skip the snarky and dry witted jokes.  I, not for one second, thought that "grandfather clause" actually was exclusive to baseball.  I operated under a grandfather clause in my job twenty years ago by being able to qualify for something under my current (at the time) met education requirements that a rule passed that if I had not started the program before the change, I wouldn't have qualified for.  Trust me, I am aware.

Ah, ok - sorry if I misunderstood. 

Part of it was me thinking that you were trying to argue that nothing is racist (again, the cursed written word).

[formulanone]

"For all intensive purposes..."

I had a co-worker and he admitted that he'd been hearing, saying, and writing it all wrong for well over 20 years.

"Decimate" to mean something other than relating to the old Roman military punishment of removing every tenth soldier in a line.

Mike

So, Michael...words can only keep the same solitary meaning, spelling, and pronunciation for centuries before and the eons to come?

Words and phrases certainly evolve, but I like it better when the evolution is done on purpose by people who knew what the existing phrase was and deliberately chose to extend or modify it, rather than someone who misheard it or didn't understand it in the first place.

That's generally how languages evolve. A word's meaning extends (obviously not literally poking out), and if left (not as opposed to right, and not meaning weak/feeble) to specific and limited instances, would remain (as opposed to parts left over after staying in place) moribund (ew, yucky)...so I would have to describe something as clumsily what I just typed out (uh, but not on a typewriter or letter press).

It's true that words or phrases can suddenly receive a more extreme meaning or a reduced impact but while one scribe might have used the right words for the moment, another can pick them up and reuse and reassemble them for their interpretation of witnessed events. Or for extreme attention-seeking didactic purposes and memetic distribution.

In the case of "decimate", it wasn't going to get reused again for obvious reasons. Perhaps a better usage is "to quickly reduce by 10 percent and the resulting effect(s) thereof..."

[Scott5114]

Apparently MasterCard can unilaterally decide for you that you can't do business with any company in an entire country to "protect you from fraud". Wish I'd known they were gonna pull that stunt before I migrated an entire server to a hosting company based in Malta.

(Yes, I checked, the United States has no OFAC sanctions on Malta at the moment, so it's squarely the "free hand of the market" deciding this, not the government.)

[D-Dey65]

The morons at Microsoft forced an update on me that PREVENTS ME FROM GETTING ACCESS TO MY FOLDERS!!!

Now, I can't search for music, photos, videos, delete my recycling bin or anything like that!!   

[J N Winkler]

The morons at Microsoft forced an update on me that PREVENTS ME FROM GETTING ACCESS TO MY FOLDERS!!!

Now, I can't search for music, photos, videos, delete my recycling bin or anything like that!!

Can't you postpone updates for 35 days?

[D-Dey65]

The morons at Microsoft forced an update on me that PREVENTS ME FROM GETTING ACCESS TO MY FOLDERS!!!

Now, I can't search for music, photos, videos, delete my recycling bin or anything like that!!

Can't you postpone updates for 35 days?

I didn't even know it was coming. My stupid PC froze on me a couple of times today, and I had to reboot the shit. Then earlier tonight I found out I couldn't see what was in my recycling bin for some cockamamie reason. I took a break and went back, and I found out I can't see ANY of my folders.