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| Author |
Message |
| 14 new of 63 responses total. |
davel
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response 50 of 63:
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Jun 27 22:52 UTC 1993 |
I think maybe I've seen this in print, too.
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katie
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response 51 of 63:
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Jun 27 23:27 UTC 1993 |
People also often say, "If that's what you think, you have another thing
coming," when they mean "another think coming."
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davel
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response 52 of 63:
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Jun 28 09:57 UTC 1993 |
Thoman Middleton once wrote about an experience of his own: having moved to
(I think) Vermont, he was taken by a strange but singularly appropriate
yankee expression, "It cost a nominal egg.". How suited, he thought, to
these (early '70s) days of hyperinflation. Eventually he realized he was
just mishearing " ... an arm & a leg" pronounced in the local fashion.
He also mentioned his early misperception of the word "straphangers" (seen
in print but not heard). Apparently, these were those particular angers
which people standing in crowded subway cars felt when someone straphed
them (with an umbrella, say).
When I was a TA, I discovered that some people, faced with "misled" (past
tense of "mislead") will parse it as the past tense of an unknown verb
"misle". This may be related to the frequent misspelling of "led" or
"misled" as "lead" or "mislead" - that is, the past/past-participle form
being spelled like the present form, on analogy to "read".
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rcurl
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response 53 of 63:
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Jun 28 13:24 UTC 1993 |
I am often struck by how much room there remains for new English words.
I and you misle; he misles. We all misled; They were misling.
Incidentally, straps have disappeared from New York subways; if from
other systems too, "straphangers" has come and gone as a functional word,
and can be appropriated to a new use.
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davel
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response 54 of 63:
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Jun 28 19:52 UTC 1993 |
Yes; "straph" is obviously related to "strafe", isn't it?
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griz
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response 55 of 63:
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Jun 29 17:38 UTC 1993 |
Re #52;
Yeah, md mentioned that (the "misled" bit) in an item on M-Net's language
conference not too long ago.
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tsty
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response 56 of 63:
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Jun 30 04:47 UTC 1993 |
The Iraqi Waco has been missiled -
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tsty
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response 57 of 63:
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Jun 30 04:47 UTC 1993 |
And we hope, not misled.
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davel
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response 58 of 63:
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Jun 30 10:41 UTC 1993 |
That's *Wacko*, I hope. Last I heard Iraq had not yet annexed Texas.
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rcurl
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response 59 of 63:
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Jun 30 13:03 UTC 1993 |
I think tsty is drawing a parallel.
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tsty
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response 60 of 63:
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Jul 1 16:44 UTC 1993 |
Yeh, sorry to besmirch the good name of a wonderful town in Texas, but
for the effect ......
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albaugh
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response 61 of 63:
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Jan 23 06:14 UTC 1994 |
How about people who are mired in a quag :-) saying they're "floundering" ?
That might work if they were on a fishing boat...
There's this guy I know who alwasy says people are "flustrated", fusing
"flustered" and "frustrated."
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davel
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response 62 of 63:
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Jan 23 11:53 UTC 1994 |
I *like* that one, & will adopt it if I remember long enough to use it a
few times.
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carl
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response 63 of 63:
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Jan 23 14:21 UTC 1994 |
One of my favorites is to go in a fast food place, order a bunch of
food, and finish the order asking for "a nice water." If mumbled
correctly, it sounds like "an ice water."
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