You know what’s really weird? The phrase “at once” meaning “immediately.”
The word “once” means “one time” yet doing something at it means to do it without delay. Weird.
“Used to be.” As in “I used to be a brown puddle of goo.”
What did you use, and how long did you use it? To be? Doesn’t that imply a present or future act?
“I employed future act brown puddle of goo.”
In the English expression to kick the bucket, a listener knowing only the meaning of kick and bucket would be unable to deduce the expression’s actual meaning, which is to die! I love idioms.
“Better.”
Yea, it has a simple meaning, like, greater in excellence or higher in quality, but what about in the following sentences:
He had better make his bed, or I’ll lay the beats on him.
I better walk the dog, or he will doo-doo all over the new Afghan.
It sort of implies the better of two choices, I guess. He’d do better to make his bed than play video games.
You’d better believe I used to kick the bucket at once.
Slim chance and fat chance are the same!
So are sit up and sit down.
“And how!” as emphatic agreement always made me scratch my head in perplexity.
Was that ever said by someone outside of an “Our Gang” short?
My contribution: “Look out!” Not a recommendation to check out the scenery, but to take cover.
Not really - you sit up from lying or slouching into a more straight backed ‘sit’ and you sit down from a standing position.
Though i suppose in effect they both mean assume a sitting position, i just wanted to have a go at being a snarky tit like everyone else gets a chance to do on here 
What Neverender said. If you’re standing, you can’t sit up; if you’re lying down or slouching, you can’t sit down.
A house burns up. A house burns down. What is the freaking difference?
Because things that aren’t buildings can’t burn down, but they can burn up.
Flammable. Inflammable. Non-inflammable.
Why are there three? Either the thing flams, or it doesn’t.
Here in Scotland, when we’re going shopping, we say ‘we’re going to get the messages’. A tad confusing for the non-Scots. Hey! Maybe that’s why we do it…?
Because inflammable came first, from the word “inflame”. Only after the word was in use did people notice it looked like it meant the thing couldn’t burn. So they changed it to ‘flammable’, only not everyone did, making some signs clearer but others more confusing. Non-inflammable was made to clear up the mess, only some poeple saw it as a double negative, and some poeple didnt’ get it, and some poeple did but couldn’t explain it and now it’s just a huge mess.
Boy, the thread subject and pedantry make for a sour mix. :rolleyes:
“I could care less” somehow now means the same as “I couldn’t care less”.
My mom grew up in rural south central Wisconsin and will sometimes bust out the phrase “Who’s she from?” meaning ‘who are her people’ or ‘who would I know that she knows’.
I confused my husband once with something similar. He was getting something out of the bottom of the fridge, and I reached in over him to get the water pitcher, and said “Head’s up!” to tell him that I was passing over his head and to watch out.
Of course, he lifted his head up according to my instructions, and bumped the water pitcher, thereby getting soaked.
A mild argument ensued about whose fault it was. Being francophone, he had never heard that expression before in his life.
“Heads up” at softball practice once meant a guy looking up and getting his nose smashed by the oncoming ball.
“Have your cake and eat it too” is one I have to say “eat your cake and have it too” or it bugs me.
Don’t get me started.