Sure, that may be the original phrase. I’ll assume that here in lieu of actually reading your citations since I’m at work. But the “think” expression is ungrammatical - obviously deliberately - but that wit seems to have grown stale. So a more plausible version is common nowadays. I had never even heard of the “think” expression before now, so I suspect that at least in the midwestern United States, it doesn’t have a lot of currency anymore. Say it, and people will be puzzled. Say the other one, and they’ll understand you completely.
If one phrase is less able to express an idea than another, how can it be more correct?
:smack: Yes, GuanoLad, it should be “another thought” - that’s the whole point of the phrase… humorous replacement of the correct form with a reduplication of the word “think”. It’s a “joke”. Geddit?
I know I’m fighting a losing battle, but I just think it’s sad that the “vast majority” (thanks, bordelond) of people that use this nice little phrase are using it in a form that makes no sense, and loses the humour that is once had. Don’t you?
I’m not sure the change is a result of anything more considered than typical pronunciation. The average speaker will never go to the trouble of clearly enunciating the two hard K/C sounds in “thinK Coming”, so it’s entirely possible for one person to say “think” and someone else to hear “thing”.
As to which version makes more sense, it probably just depends which you heard first. A whole bunch of our colloquial expressions make no sense at first glance (although they may have a rational etymology), but have just acquired meaning for us through context. Someone who’s only heard “thing coming” will naturally think it makes more sense, and vice versa.
As Quick Draw McGraw used to say: “I got me some thinnin’ to do.”
I thin’ you can explain the high Google rate for the bogus spelling for two reasons:
Don’t underestimate the prevalence of sarcasm in today’s world. Late-night talk show hosts earn their living by monologues full of sarcasm, and their bits get repeated throughtout the whole TV-watching population, blogger world, message boards, etc. Once a familiar phrase has become a cliché, taken for granted, the sarcastic variant of it is likely to be more repeated. This enters a hyperphase when semiliterates who’ve never even heard the original phrase start repeating the sarcastic variant, thinging it’s the original.
Rock-‘n’-roll lyrics account for a huge chunk of bandwidth. Just try Googling any phrase from any well-known rock album and you’ll get page after page of fan sites. Judas Priest alone must account for half the Google hits.
I’ve only heard it as “think,” since that makes much more sense.
“Have another thing coming,” is just a dull usage.
“Have another think coming,” is much more colorful and memorable – the hallmarks of a commonly used phrase. All the objections people have made are precisely why it’s a great use of language – it’s colorful and not grammatically correct, so it sticks in the mind and makes others want to use it.
Now, there are always dull individuals whose minds can’t get around the concept of colorful language (except as a euphemism for swearing) and who want to make things as dull as possible in the name of “accuracy.” These have “fixed” the phrase for all the reasons the objectors have pointed out. It’s a sure sign that if you think this needs fiction, you have no real imagination.
Of course, if you’ve always heard the phrase in the inferior version, that’s not your fault. But to insist it’s right for any “logical” reason shows a real lack in your education.
I just wanted to cast a vote for “think”. That Judas Priest song always grated on my nerves (grammatically, that is.)
Another thing coming just doesn’t make sense. Unless you’re about to drop dead, of course you’ve got another thing coming! Don’t we all?
And the entire phrase goes, “If you think , you’ve got another think coming.” Seems pretty straightforward to me.
I hope this was conspicuously missing a smilie. Because this is a messageboard who devote pages and pages to complaining about the ‘wrong’ use of apostrophes.
What? How is the the ‘think’ version more colourful? How does it stick in the mind any better than the ‘thing’ version? Nobody pronounces the hard K/C so they sound the same anyway!
It’s colourful because it contains a deliberate non-standard usage of the word “think”. It’s colourful in the same way as the phrase “Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits”. (Although it wouldn’t surprise me if that has also now been garbled to “Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit”…)
I have always interpreted the phrase as “think”. It makes more sense and has a touch of humor. The popular version with “thing” is one of those misuses of phrases that seem to have wormed their way into the english language and are here to stay. Like the very annoying “…at this point in time…”. It is either “At this point” OR “at this time”, to combine the two is rendundant (tautology), like saying “a pair of twins”.
For all intensive purposes, the card shark was reeking havoc, because he had a road to hoe which was the spit and image of a rot iron prison gate, and he was on tender hooks while walking through a veil of tears in a viscous circle. So without further adieu, if worse comes to worse and you are chomping at the bit, you will never cut the muster if you don’t nip it in the butt. And you might get old-timer’s diease and never sluff it off or extract any revenge.
I’ve lived in the UK for five years and have been living in Ireland for about three years now. I have never heard the “think” version. Well, it’s possible that someone used it and my brain heard it as “thing” because that’s what I was expecting. I’ve classed this as another bit of knowledge; there’s another version and there’s some evidence that it might even be the correct version. Will happily go one using the “thing” version, though.
