# Epiphanies about the meanings of words and phrases **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 16, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740 "2006-07-16T15:09:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/41 "2006-07-18T02:56:58Z")
I think it was sometime in the past 5 years when I realized that _left-wingers_ were not hemp-toting frizzy-haired radical granola-munchers, but just middle-of-the-road moderate-to-progressive Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/42 "2006-07-18T03:06:38Z")
[QUOTE=Gail] I thought the origin of the expression, “the die is cast” had to do with making a mold. Something’s already molded, you can’t change it. For some reason, when I was watching _Pirates 2_ last week, I realized the origin was probably gambling…Die being the singular form for dice and cast meaning thrown. Geez, I always make things more complicated! :smack: [/QUOTE] I had the same revelation just a couple months. You are not alone, but I was at the time. Everyone else knew the origin but me. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/43 "2006-07-18T03:11:48Z")
[QUOTE=Helen’s Eidolon] Carnival = carne-vale, Latin for ‘goodbye, meat’. [/QUOTE] I had a huge argument with the sales manager at the radio station I worked at one time over this. One of her salesmen had submitted copy from a client advertising a Mardi Gras party at their bar. A line in the copy read, “Mardi Gras, which literally translated means ‘farewell to meat’.” I wouldn’t run the copy because it wrong. The sales manager told me no one else would know that. I still wouldn’t run it. They eventually called the client who changed the copy. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slip\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slip\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slip_1)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/44 "2006-07-18T03:40:21Z")
I didn’t really get the phrase “a stitch in time saves nine” until I was adult. I couldn’t figure out why someone would want to sew time. It was only until I added commas (“a stitch, in time, saves nine”) that I got it. ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/45 "2006-07-18T10:44:36Z")
[QUOTE=Duke of Rat] My latest epiphany: I thought epitome meant “the best that could be achieved”, then I found it it meant “a typical example”. [/QUOTE] Hmm, that’s news to me too. Guess I’m not as smart as I thought I was. I always thought it was the _best_ example of something. ::taking her old maids and slinking home:: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/46 "2006-07-18T11:05:53Z")
[QUOTE=Webner] I realized one day that incredible literally means “unbelievable” or not-credible, and its meaning gradually changed to just “amazing.” [/QUOTE] Interestingly, ‘unbelievable’ is also moving in the same direction. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/47 "2006-07-18T11:08:22Z")
For years and years, I thought the word ‘macerate’ meant to cut or grind into pieces, because I only knew it from a couple of contexts. It actually means to soak or soften by soaking. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/48 "2006-07-18T11:19:57Z")
Anybody remember when “terrible” meant “strikes **terror** into the hearts of men”? There are a few places in older versions of the Bible where it describes God as being “terrible”. Now it’s used to mean “bad” or “evil”. Yes, that Ivan the Terrible wasn’t very nice. Actually, they called him “Terrible” because people were terrified of him. Same thing with “awful”, another word used to describe God in the Bible, meaning “awe-inspiring”. Nowadays we say “awesome” instead, and use “awful” to describe the coffee at the local diner. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/49 "2006-07-18T11:30:25Z")
“painstaking” is one that I had, too. I was able to enlighten siomeone else about “druthers”, aas in “If I had my druthers”. They were unaware that the word derived from “woul **d rather** ”, and the revelation almost caused a real head-slapping. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/50 "2006-07-18T12:09:50Z")
Around 7th Grade, the evils of math reared it’s ungly beastie head. Learning Quarters in math and Quarters in Money and Quarter to 12 were not always .25 cents. It made no sense to me. How could it be a quarter to 12, when everyone knows a quarter is twenty five sense so the time should be 12:35, not 12:45. Why was everyone a dumbass but me!!!111!!! It wasn’t until my late twenties that I actually recalled this conundrum and figured it out for myself. :rolleyes: :smack: I would like to state that I can barely read a ruler to this day.( I know the major hash marks. It’s the ones between those. Oddly enough, metric makes sense to my poor brain.) I’m not proud, but one thing I have discovered in my disability is that those that are math impaired are usually surrounded by math geeks who will read said ruler with a snobbish distain. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/51 "2006-07-18T12:38:52Z")
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest] Around 7th Grade, the evils of math reared it’s ungly beastie head. Learning Quarters in math and Quarters in Money and Quarter to 12 were not always .25 cents. It made no sense to me. How could it be a quarter to 12, when everyone knows a quarter is twenty five sense so the time should be 12:35, not 12:45. Why was everyone a dumbass but me!!!111!!! It wasn’t until my late twenties that I actually recalled this conundrum and figured it out for myself. :rolleyes: :smack: [/QUOTE] Heh. Reminds me of the time I went shopping in a London supermarket; the cashier asked me (in broken English) for “half past six pounds” - I only hesistated because I was trying to work out if he meant £6.50 or £6.30. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/52 "2006-07-18T17:10:50Z")
For the longest time I thought “A fine tooth comb” was a comb so fine that it could comb the imaginary hairs on someones teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Faruiza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@Faruiza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Faruiza)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/53 "2006-07-18T17:21:18Z")
[QUOTE=Bippy the Beardless] For the longest time I thought “A fine tooth comb” was a comb so fine that it could comb the imaginary hairs on someones teeth. [/QUOTE] :eek: I suppose it’s silly that that squicked me out so much, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/54 "2006-07-18T18:03:32Z")
It never entered into my wildest dreams that the term “cotton-picking” (as in ‘take your cotton-picking hands off of her’) had anything to do with race. A friend casually mentioned the derivation to me when I was in college. It seems so obvious now, but when you’re raised saying something, you just don’t think much about the deeper meaning until it hits you between the eyes (or kicks you in the ass). Glad I found out the truth before I used the phrase carelessly. ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/55 "2006-07-18T18:19:01Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] It never entered into my wildest dreams that the term “cotton-picking” (as in ‘take your cotton-picking hands off of her’) had anything to do with race. [/QUOTE] Same here! Bugs Bunny says this, and I always thought he was somehow referring to his cotton-tail! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/56 "2006-07-18T18:21:37Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] It never entered into my wildest dreams that the term “cotton-picking” (as in ‘take your cotton-picking hands off of her’) had anything to do with race. A friend casually mentioned the derivation to me when I was in college. It seems so obvious now, but when you’re raised saying something, you just don’t think much about the deeper meaning until it hits you between the eyes (or kicks you in the ass). Glad I found out the truth before I used the phrase carelessly. [/QUOTE] I had a similar revelation the first time it dawned on me that “gypped” derived from Gypsy. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/57 "2006-07-18T19:11:45Z")
[QUOTE=Surly Chick] When growing up, my family always called the unpopped kernels of popcorn, “old maids.” It wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s that I actually thought it through and realized it was because “they hadn’t been popped.” :eek: [/QUOTE] I first heard the term from a friend, but he was referring to the barely popped kernels. You know, old maids because “they don’t get out much”. Have I been whooshed all these years? [QUOTE=Shirley Ujest] It made no sense to me. How could it be a quarter to 12, when everyone knows a quarter is twenty five sense so the time should be 12:35, not 12:45. Why was everyone a dumbass but me!!!111!!! [/QUOTE] The same dumbasses kept calling it a quarter moon, but I knew it was clearly a half moon. ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/58 "2006-07-18T19:48:19Z")
[QUOTE=Surly Chick] Hmm, that’s news to me too. Guess I’m not as smart as I thought I was. I always thought it was the _best_ example of something. ::taking her old maids and slinking home:: [/QUOTE] Huh, I just looked it up and epitome can also mean “an ideal example”. So I haven’t been using it totally wrong all these years. I used to think bemusement meant the same thing as to be amused, because the words bemuse and amuse look a like. I didn’t know about the “confused” part of the meaning until I actually looked it up. And I didn’t realize cotton-picking had anything to do with race until now! It seems so obvious now. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/59 "2006-07-18T19:53:07Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] It never entered into my wildest dreams that the term “cotton-picking” (as in ‘take your cotton-picking hands off of her’) had anything to do with race. A friend casually mentioned the derivation to me when I was in college. It seems so obvious now, but when you’re raised saying something, you just don’t think much about the deeper meaning until it hits you between the eyes (or kicks you in the ass). Glad I found out the truth before I used the phrase carelessly. [/QUOTE] Wow. Perfect example. I had no clue, and it’s totally obvious. > [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I had a similar revelation the first time it dawned on me that “gypped” derived from Gypsy. This hadn’t occurred to me either until someone chided me (on this very board, I believe) for using the word. Jeez, I was quoting _The Big Lebowski_. ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740/60 "2006-07-18T20:10:42Z")
Makes me question the political correctness of calling drywall Gyprock (sp?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/epiphanies-about-the-meanings-of-words-and-phrases/364740.md?page=4)