Okay, I can accept that something with multiple parts or components might require the subtle addition of out to indicate a change in it’s entirety.
But changing out wallpaper? Changing out curtains? Switching out a rug? I still think that what one does with the object after the switch has been made is not salient to what is being conveyed.
I’ll have to do some research to try to ascertain when the term came into use. Perhaps it was indeed something borrowed from technology and is now used for every change/switch.
So what does it mean if a coach says to the assistant coach “The right wing isn’t playing well. Let’s switch him.”? Does that mean put him at center or does that mean to substitute him out of the game?
An ex girlfriend had exactly the same tic. I used to say “so by the time you were saying these things, you were facing away from each other?” Used to drive her nuts.
Then I broke up with her and she fell pregnant. (There’s another weird one.)
Fell?! “Oops, I stumbled and landed on an ejaculating penis?”
Most of the examples in the thread represent failures of comprehension by the listeners rather than failures of meaning by the speakers. LSLGuy and Chessic have correctly addressed the meaning of “switch out.”
That’s probably “settin’.” To set is more than just to sit. The remark to be quoted came in the context of a relaxed, extended conversation.
What do you think the problem with this is? The presence of “had,” or the whole phrase? This construction either corrects misunderstanding (“No, that ain’t it. What had happened was…”) or introduces back story to an image or moment just described (“Yeah, it was crazy. We had no idea what was going on. Come to find out, what had happened was…”).
My impression is that “fix” meaning arrange or prepare predates “fix” meaning repair, although “fix” meaning fasten in place is probably the original. In any case, these are all valid usages and context makes them all clear.
Oh, and the “take and…” construction in the OP is a contraction of the direction to take (pick up) an appropriate tool and use it thusly. I agree it’s not necessary, but it’s also not meaningless.
Think of fell here in the same sense as “fell ill.”
The problem here, as I see it, is, like, um… know what I mean? When people that use words like… know what I mean? I especially hate it when… know what I mean?