I thought the same thing, notquitekarpov, but was foiled by the dictionary, which lists both. Webster’s online adds this to the entry:
This is not to say that a dictionary is the same as a grammar: it does not tell us what is “proper,” but only reports common practice. Nonetheless, I generally regard a grammatical misuse’s inclusion in a dictionary as a battle lost and a signal to save my resources for other skirmishes.
Okay … perhaps I should give the context, that might help; although the context is grammatically difficult to decipher as well. SATAN has come up to spy on God’s new creation, and he meets up with his old colleague GABRIEL; GABRIEL is questioning him as to why he didn’t bring his friends along :
But wherefore thou alone? wherefore with thee
Came not all Hell broke loose? is pain to them
Less pain, less to be fled, or thou than they
Less hardie to endure? courageous Chief,
The first in flight from pain, had’st thou alleg’d
To thy deserted host this cause of flight,
Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive.
(copied from Proj. Gutenberg text)
The interesting thing about Cool Hand Luke is how little dialogue Strother Martin actually has. I saw it again about a year ago, pretty much just so I could hear the quote…and I was amazed at how little there was. “What we haaaave heah is…failure to communicate,” is only said once, I’m sure. And I don’t like it any more than you men.
Oh, the other one that gets me. “Ignorance is bliss.” Well, it isn’t. The real quote is, “If ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise.”
Darn right about ‘et cetera’ being firmly two words, panamajack – it was even at one time abbreviated ‘& c.’ instead of ‘etc.’ And maybe if people learned a little more Latin, they wouldn’t apply it to people, where they ought to be using ‘et al.’ for ‘et aliis’.
Otherwise, it’s a bit of an insult, calling people ‘things.’
As for ‘jerry-rig’ vs. ‘jury-rig’, I was surprised to find that the Oxford English Dictionary can date ‘jury-rigged’ all the way back to 1788, but ‘jerry-built’ only back to 1869 (although they have no definitive etymology for either.) Since ‘Jerry’ as a slang term for a German soldier didn’t come into use until 1919, and the term ‘jury-rig’ actually predates the creation of Germany by nearly a century, I’m going to have to assume that ‘jury-rig’ is the correct rendering, contrary to what I had previously thought.
You learn something new every day…
All the inhabitants hell broke loose?
Along with the protein example comes “di-ah-pers”. I just say “die-pers” but maybe the other is correct?
Also, there’s chicken pops vs. chicken pox. Even split among my friends.
thought of a couple more thing morning …
I’ve heard people pronounce the word “forte” in the context of someone’s stong point (“Let him handle the negotiations with the cannibals, that’s his forte”) the same way it’s pronounced in musical notation. If it’s something someone’s especially good at, it’s pronounced “fort”; if it’s indicating loudness in a piece of music, it’s pronounced “for-te”
I’ve also seen people use presently (meaning in a little while) where they should be using currently (meaning at this moment.) Encarta Online gives both definitions, but it sounds like someone was dragging their feet at having to include the second one:
I’ve noticed in recent years people using the expression “wrecking havoc” instead of “wreaking havoc.”
“Wreaking” means bringing about. “Wrecking” means destroying. By substituting one word for another, they’ve essentially reversed the meaning of the expression.
Aluminum vs. Aluminium. From http://www.webelements.com
**I agree, technically, since the former is from the French and the latter is from the Italian, but now they’re both English, and both ultimately from the same Latin root. They picked up their current respective pronunciations on their respective Romantic diversions. Besides, I have literally never heard the former usage pronounced “fort.” Do Brits francofy it?
Did you read my first post? I said:
I clearly drew a distinction between those that make a statement with the intent of quoting someone, and those that say it just because they agree with it, or because it sounds cool. If you aren’t trying to quoting someone, I don’t see how you can be misquoting them.
Well, then go ahead and correct them. I have heard people say “Money is the root of all evil” or “You know what they say: ‘money is the root of all evil’” or “It’s said that money is the root of all evil.” I have never heard anyone say “The Bible says that money is the root of all evil.”
As for the “failure to communicate” phrase: it was said at least twice: the warden says it at least once, and Luke says it at least once. I don’t recall whether Luke quoted the warden exactly.
There’s another mistake that’s commonly made with “etc.”: people place “and” before it: “There were apples, oranges, bananas and etc.” On a related note, what’s with “PIN number” and “ATM machine”? I find myself using these expressions just from hearing them so often. Does anyone have a VCR recorder? A CPU unit? RAM memory?
And here’s another misunderstanding: many people don’t seem to realize that “raising” and “razing” have completely opposite meanings.
Wasn’tt it mentioned on the Simpsons once?
Toadspittle:
Isn’t the American version “Uh-loo-mih-num”? That’s how I learned it.
"Come to grips" vs "come to terms"
These are used interchangeably but they are opposite in meaning. I’ve heard network TV commentators say that a couple “came to grips with the situation and got back together.” ?? They beat each other up and got back together?? Love hurts, I guess.
Nah, it’s for-te to us (no regional variations). A fort is something you people used to have to keep out them Injuns - never understood what was wrong with Sumptner Castle.
Another one that enjoys a mixed pronounciation here is ‘ego’. Most people pronounce it E-Go but a significant minority go with eg-go (like Sego). I think the latter reflects a latin root but that’s speculation.
Also, Americans say “I have no clue” whereas we would say “I have no idea” - in the case of jcatcher’s post above, both would apply to me.
yes, of course, you are correct, what I was pointing out is that there is no “a” before failure, as everyone misquotes.
I heard that Strother claimed that he did say “a failure” but that it got garbled during the transmission. Is that true? 
“If you’ve got it, flout it” instead of “flaunt it”
“Flaunting the rules” instead of “flouting the rules”
brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (the sound of a cold shiver up my journalistic spine) 
The POINT, O ye of little learning, is the rest of the quotation. It doesn’t mean that having some knowledge is dangerous: it means that having only a small amount is.
The whole quatrain is:
A little learning is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
For shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
While drinking largely sobers us again.
Once you have a little learning, in other words, you should extend it so you can understand what you have learnt, which is the complete opposite of the anti-intellectual way it’s usually quoted.
The two meanings you give are different, but they are no more opposite than apples and oranges. And “come to terms” has the additional meaning that is similar to the “come to grips” expression, as well as the “agreeing to terms” connotation. False opposition.
“all hell broke loose”. Noun phrase. Paraphrase: “All of hell broken loose [verbed something]”.
“All hell broke loose.” Sentence. Parapharse: “All of hell escaped and [went to Mardi Gras].”
Are you writing that without pronouncing the “t” or pronouncing the letter all French apparently dislike?
If it’s somthing’s some one’s particulary good at, it’s pronounced “fore” with a slightly longer “o”.
If it’s pronounced “fort” then it’s what Davy Crokett protected from them Injuns in the Wild West.
If we’re talking about movie expressions then I have one.
"Luke, I am your father." vs. “No, I am your father.” Drives me batty every time I hear the incorrect former.