The English language is awash withsayings and phrasesthat handle everything from new beginnings ( " back to square one " ) to endings ( " kvetch the bucket " ) and just about everything in between . Many reflect the development of the language over the trend of story — the old saw about never looking a talent horse in the mouth can be traced back to the thirteenth century [ sources : Grammarphobia ] .
After basketball star LeBron James told the earthly concern he was ratify with the NBA ’s Miami Heat in 2010 by saying , " I ’m taking my talent to South Beach , " the idiomatic expression took on a life of its own . It was used to describe subjects as varied as a night at the gin mill ( " I ’m taking my talents to Moe ’s " ) , dissolution ( " I ’m taking my talent to [ insert new important other ’s name here ] " ) , or even resignations ( " I ’m taking my talent to Initech " ) [ source : Barron ] .
The problem is that many people who utilize these phrases wind up throwing the babe out with bathwater by flubbing and butchering the particular saying so badly that itmeans something else entirelyor nothing at all . Some of the most common expressions are also some of the most normally blur . ( Is that a statue of limit , or a legislative act ? )
They say noesis is power ( or perhaps powder ) . So take on to master some of the most regularly used idiomatic expression that are regularly enjoin wrong .
10: Not Worth a Grain of Salt
This misstatement is likely have by a mixing - up between two uncouth phrase : " deserving hissalt " and " with a grain of salt . " The former mention to a individual who is deemed of practiced stock and amercement , upstanding character . other Roman Catholic soldier earned an allowance of salt for their efforts , and a soldier who was " deserving his Strategic Arms Limitation Talks " was one whose performance was up to snuff . ( The Romance word for this margin , salarium , is where we derive the wordsalary ) [ source : Mussulman ] .
The latter phrase means to accept a statement while remaining questioning about whether it ’s actually true . It refers to the estimation that food is more easily swallowed when withdraw with a tiny chip of salt [ source : The Phrase Finder ] .
9: I Could Care Less
How much less ? The phrase , when used by rights , is think to convey the melodic theme that the speaker is completely and utterly uninterested in the topic being discussed . In the garbled reading the message of absolute disinterest is lose .
" I could n’t wish less " come from the British in the early 1900s , but around the sixties , Americans reverse it to " I could care less . " No one is sure why . Perhaps it was an endeavour atsarcasmthat ’s been lost because what you ’re really articulate is while you do n’t deal about the topic , there are others about which you care even less [ seed : Washington State University , Qunion ] .
8: All Intensive Purposes
" All intention and purpose " is a 500 - year - old number of idiom coined in an English Act of Parliament by KingHenry VIII . It really posit , " to all intents , constructions and determination " and meant " in every pragmatic sense . " It was shorten to the democratic version in 1709 .
The butchered form — " all intensive purposes " — sounds interchangeable , which is believably the reason it ’s been pop up in newspapers and casual manner of speaking since as early as 1870 [ reservoir : Safire ] .
7: It’s a Doggy-dog World
Unless you ’re mention to the song from Snoop Dogg ’s landmark 1993 album " Doggystyle , " you believably intend " dog - eat - Canis familiaris Earth . " But possibly the confusion explicate becausedogs are n’t cannibals .
The saying is really a corruption of the Latin phrasecanis caninam non est , which states that dogs do not eat each other . Nevertheless , " domestic dog - eat - dog " is meant to convey the viciousness or " every Isle of Man for himself " nature of life and bon ton [ beginning : Paton ] . So leave out the " doggy " unless you ’re a die - gruelling Snoop Dogg fan and conceive it ’s his world and we just live in it .
6: That’s a Bald-faced Lie
Bald - faced or bold - faced ? This is one of those commonly flubbed idiom in which both variation fathom a whole lot like one another . In fact , they ’re both correct ; they just happen to have two more or less different meanings .
A bald-headed - facedlie — or barefaced , as it ’s often called in England — means one that is undisguised and understandably untrue . A bluff - faced lie , on the other hand , is one that is impudent or disrespectful [ source : Grammarphobia ] . Many lies would pass under both categories .
5: He Made a 360-degree Turn in His Life
Except if he ’s right back where he started , that ’s probably not what you mean . degree are n’t only a agency to measuretemperatureand Angle ; they ’re also clichés writers and sports commentator use to depict everything from major animation changes to spin slam dunks on thebasketballcourt . The problem is that these term are on a regular basis misused .
A complete circle is 360 degree . So , if you need to discover someone who has " fall full lap , " you might say he has made a 360 - degree turn . A half circle , meanwhile , is 180 degrees . This is the phrase one might use to describe a complete alteration from one extreme to another . A shy wallflower that busts out of his shell and becomes anextrovertovernight might be said to have made a 180 - degree variety . If he later reverts to his shrinking violet ways , he has gone 360 degree , landing back in the same billet he started from [ author : Gray - Grant ] .
4: I ‘Literally’ Froze to Death
Oh really ? Then how is it you are live and able to talk this nonsense ? The word " literal " has a very clear import : " adhere to fact or to the ordinary construction or basal meaning of a terminal figure or expression ; existent " [ source : Merriam - Webster ] Yet , it is far too often used to add emphasis to a situation and exaggerate a sure scenario that could not maybe be factual : " It was literallyrainingcats and dogs . " " My telephone is literally blowing up . "
The correct parole in these and a whole slew of cases in which you do n’t really intend literally — your phone is not a tickingtime bomb , or is it ? — is " figuratively . " As in , " I was figuratively foaming at the rima oris , I was so angry " [ source : Grammarist ] . But we have to intromit that does sound a little weird .
3: I Pawned Her Off on My Friend
To read why this phrase is incorrect , you first have to see what it means to " soak " something . Apawn shopowner is fundamentally a low - storey lender : One pawns an token — electronics , melodic cat’s-paw , microwaves — to the owner ( also known as a pawnbroker ) in return for money . The person who pawned the item can get the point back if he pays the pawn shop owner back the money , with a certain amount of interest , within an agreed - upon sentence limit [ source : National Pawnbrokers Association ] .
Thus , the phrase " pawn off " should be used only when referring to trading an item ascollateral for a loan . That has n’t kibosh people from put off the locution with the similar - sounding " medal off , " which means to get rid of something or someone by means of deception [ source : Macmillan Dictionary ] . This idiomatic expression probably came fromcard - playingand concealing card in the palm of your hand .
2: Tongue and Cheek
To say something " tongue - in - face " is to say it in anironic , kidding or nonserious agency . A figurative way , even . It is commonly conceive that the saying is derived from the eighteenth - one C practice of actually order one ’s knife against the interior of one ’s cheek after say something to show that it ’s intended as a joke [ seed : Education microbe ] . The idiom " tongue - and - cheek , " therefore , does n’t make mother wit , despite its broad use among those unfamiliar with the origin of the appropriate phrase [ source : Grammarist ] .
1: Taken for Granite
Unless you ’re ageologistor workplace at a rock-and-roll prey , the word you ’re look for is " granted . " To take something for granted is to assume that you are entitled to it ( money , a line of work , a friend or meaning other ) without question or to merely fail to appreciate its value [ source : Collins Dictionary ] . To take something for " granite " can only mean to assume that the soul or matter is actually a piece of pyrogenic rock ‘n’ roll .
Lots More Information
" take hold me close , Tony Danza . " I may usually confuse , misstate and garble song lyrics , but I ’m still not ready to believe that Elton John is saying anything other than that on a small ditty commonly bed as " lilliputian social dancer . " To the extent I ’m ever ready to admit that I may have the word incorrect — " hold me closer tiny dancer , " some claim it go – I hereby call for the lyrics to be permanently changed . I do n’t know who this tiny terpsichorean fella is , but he certainly has n’t accomplished anything on the degree of " Who ’s the hirer ? "
