# Dammit, "prodigal" does not mean "straying" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 12, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326 "2005-09-12T20:57:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326/41 "2005-09-14T21:57:43Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > And to anyone who plans to come into this thread to tell me that language is always evolving, and that maybe the meaning of the word is changing through popular usage, well maybe so, but you know what? Fuck right off. The phrase “fuck off” only exists because of common usage. It certainly has no bearing on the original meaning of the temr _fuck_. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326/42 "2005-09-14T22:08:21Z")
Besides, isn’t “fuck off” archaic? I thought the new temr was “fucko off.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326/43 "2005-09-14T22:27:00Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > The phrase “fuck off” only exists because of common usage. It certainly has no bearing on the original meaning of the temr _fuck_. 😛 Back then, they didn’t have dictionaries to help keep things straight. And the resulting ignorance was like a dark veil upon the land. Today, I can tell you to “ **fuck right off** ” and provide a handy [internet cite](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fuck) to prove I’m using the word correctly. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![SimonMoon5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@SimonMoon5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SimonMoon5)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326/44 "2005-09-14T23:52:53Z")
All these grammar corrections are great. You guys are such Samaritans. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326/45 "2005-09-15T12:58:42Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Back then, they didn’t have dictionaries to help keep things straight. **And the resulting ignorance was like a dark veil upon the land.** Man, ya gotta love phrasing like this. Nicely put. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326/46 "2005-09-15T18:52:15Z")
“Now” is not “the winter of our discontent”. The winter of our discontent is made glorious summer by this son of York. “Sweets for the sweet” were funeral flowers, not chocobits for your honeybunny. I also remember when someone said the Republican Party was undergoing a “sea change.” How? It’s already rich _and_ strange. I can’t say these bug me all that much, but it is kind of droll when someone manages to make hash of their meaning by choosing an inapt quotation. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326/47 "2005-09-15T19:13:02Z")
Well, just to keep this thread up with the times- I am almost compelled to poke a pencil through my corneas every time I hear: “They aren’t refugees, they’re Americans” or Amurcans as Dubya pronounces it. A few nights ago on CNN I heard an EMT explain to the interviewer that “she wasn’t picking up bodies or corpses - she was picking up people. Just because they were dead that hadn’t changed.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326/48 "2005-09-16T00:52:06Z")
A _movable feast_ doesn’t mean a “gigantic”, or “unbelievably wonderful” feast. It means a religious holiday that has a variable date. Using it to mean something stupendously wonderful is nonsensical. This message is intended for the instruction and profit of film critics everywhere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dammit-prodigal-does-not-mean-straying/321326.md?page=2)