# Um...I think you've gotten that saying wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 31, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130 "2010-08-31T14:15:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/61 "2010-08-31T21:14:17Z")
irishfella’s plans always come to _fruitition_, and he considers his _spontanuity_ to be one of his biggest assets. His ability to completely mess with a good word is astounding- but he does make me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/62 "2010-08-31T21:23:30Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > \ > A bargain at half the price. > \ Dad used to say _Cheap at half the price_. I always found it annoying. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/63 "2010-08-31T21:46:28Z")
From a [NY Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/us/politics/31flag.html) story today: > [@](#): > > That means no pennants baring sports team logos, no Jolly Rogers, no rainbow banners celebrating gay pride and no historic flags showing a coiled rattlesnake **bearing** its fangs. I imagine the snake supporting a silver platter on its head, with its fangs nicely arranged to be served. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/64 "2010-08-31T21:46:37Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > I’d call those legitimate variations of pronunciation… I would, too–in the family with [metathesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metathesis_%28linguistics%29) and [epenthesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epenthesis#Related_phenomena). The thing with the OP is that these “sayings” have become catchphrases or cliches, and in that way, they are becoming like idioms where the literal sense of the words isn’t important. I don’t think it shows a thoughtless person so much as a person who perhaps doesn’t read that much. It’s not enough to make me judgmental or throw things. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/65 "2010-08-31T21:49:19Z")
> [@Ruby](#): > > > [@not\_alice](#): > > > > Oh you mean at dark o’clock? > > That’s o’dark thirty in the military. Wait, you get a half hour extra sleep in the military? I wouldn’t have thought that. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/66 "2010-08-31T21:58:37Z")
> [@ENugent](#): > > From a [NY Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/us/politics/31flag.html) story today: > > > [@](#): > > > > That means no pennants baring sports team logos, no Jolly Rogers, no rainbow banners celebrating gay pride and no historic flags showing a coiled rattlesnake **bearing** its fangs. > > I imagine the snake supporting a silver platter on its head, with its fangs nicely arranged to be served. The NYT actually reversed the appropriate versions of baring/bearing in that sentence. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/67 "2010-08-31T22:04:16Z")
You’re right! Is this some sort of meta version of Gaudere’s law, that I carefully scoured my own writing for typos, but then missed mocking a second one of theirs? Now in addition to the snake with the silver platter, I’m imagining flags with a naked sports mascot on them, too. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/68 "2010-09-01T02:49:53Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > > [@Khadaji](#): > > > > … We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it. > > It had quit being funny a long time ago, but I can’t refrain from deliberate botching of this one by saying, “We can drive off that bridge when we come to it.” > > Others I botch on purpose: > > A bargain at half the price. > A fool and his gold weigh more than just the gold. > It is better to sit idle than to do nothing at all. > Little things come in small packages. > In numbers there is quantity. Like the Good Book says - “Do unto others as they hath done unto you” (Arthur Daly) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/69 "2010-09-01T04:30:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > It has become common usage to tell someone when you want them to sign something, “Put your John Henry on that.” > > I don’t doubt you (and it doesn’t surprise me), but I’ve never heard this. Everyone who’s said it to me correctly says “John Hancock.” I am SO going to say John Henry from now on. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/70 "2010-09-01T04:37:11Z")
YogSosoth- do the users of “peaked” mean the definition here? - [pique - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pique) Or do they mean “aroused my interest” or “caught my interest” as I have heard sometimes? Neither peaked nor piqued means that. [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peaked](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peaked) [http://www.onelook.com/?w=peaked&ls=a](http://www.onelook.com/?w=peaked&ls=a) ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/71 "2010-09-01T04:43:12Z")
> [@congodwarf](#): > > > [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > > > My understanding is that it should be “John Hancock” after one of the signers of the **Constitution**. > > psst…Declaration of Independence Argh. :smack: Um, what I was really implying was that anyone who is stoopid enough to think that Hancock signed the Constitution. . . Aw, nevermind. Now I suppose I’ve lost all my rights to sneer? ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/72 "2010-09-01T05:08:29Z")
Oh just one more itsy-bitsy sneer. When I was a kid my mother was in an organization with a woman who called and told me to tell Mom that she was going to hurry and get down to the meeting early so she could get the coffee urine started before everyone got there. Yum. ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/73 "2010-09-01T05:40:51Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > YogSosoth- do the users of “peaked” mean the definition here? - [pique - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pique) > > Or do they mean “aroused my interest” or “caught my interest” as I have heard sometimes? > Neither peaked nor piqued means that. > > [peaked - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peaked) > [http://www.onelook.com/?w=peaked&ls=a](http://www.onelook.com/?w=peaked&ls=a) It’s in [sense #3 here](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pique). One’s curiosity is pricked. I’ve been known to indulge in peak of fit, myself, if a fit of pique seems inadequate. ---
**Author:** ![ShallowEnd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@ShallowEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShallowEnd)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/74 "2010-09-01T07:53:41Z")
Business I worked for had a small kitchen and they wanted to let people know they could order what they wanted, not just take something from the warmer. I changed my co-worker’s sign as she had written Special Orders Excepted. Not phrases, but words that I wish people would pronounce correctly, Chaps and Forte, losing battle I know, but one needs dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/75 "2010-09-01T08:27:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > My Ex would always say, if we were heading out somewhere early, that we had to get up at the “crack of doom”. I would say DAWN. DAWN. He would say DOOM. Every time. It was a telling misuse by Mr Negativity. > > People here keep citing The Lord of the Rings, but it’s worth pointing out that “Crack Of Doom” has its origin in Eschatology. Long before Tolkien co-opted the term (as a physical location) , it meant the beginning of the End of the World. **Salem** ’s Ex might have been trying to be funny, equating the “Crack of Dawn” , when he had to get up, with the “Crack of Doom” signalling the End of All Things, which is undoubtedly how it felt. (When Gabriel’s trumpet blows, I’m definitely hitting the Snooze button, myself). If so, he’s more correct than the Tolkien-commenters here. Surely the most likely source is Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_? That’s certainly where I picked it up from - we use it all the time instead of “_crack of dawn_”. Act IV, Scene I: “_Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo: down~! Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. A third is like the former. Filthy hags! Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes! **What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?** _” (Not saying the eschatological sense is not the ultimate origin, but I’d imagine more people will have heard it from Macbeth than Tolkien as it was in common usage decades before LOTR was written) ---
**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:** [September 1, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/76 "2010-09-01T12:07:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Not saying the eschatological sense is not the ultimate origin, but I’d imagine more people will have heard it from Macbeth than Tolkien as it was in common usage decades before LOTR was written You’re probably right, but I made the comment about Tolkien – as I stated – because two previous posters had explicitly brought Tolkien up. I suspected that Tolkien was not the source of her ex’s choice of the phrase, whether through Macbeth or not. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/77 "2010-09-01T12:26:20Z")
> [@ShallowEnd](#): > > Not phrases, but words that I wish people would pronounce correctly, Chaps and Forte. How would _you_ pronounce “Chaps”, and in what context? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/78 "2010-09-01T12:46:58Z")
I just love how descriptivists are stupid when they are the ones who discovered the rules in the first place, and prescriptivists always wind up having to change their tune about something being wrong. How is it smarter to tell people the way things should be, rather than observe how they actually are? ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/79 "2010-09-01T13:02:35Z")
I was in a seminar last week, and the presenter kept saying “Depth and Breath” for “Depth and Breadth”. The slides were misspelled, too. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130/80 "2010-09-01T13:09:38Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I just love how descriptivists are stupid when they are the ones who discovered the rules in the first place, What do you mean? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-i-think-youve-gotten-that-saying-wrong/552130.md?page=5)