Personally, I use, “if you think that, then fuck you, buddy”.
But seriously, I can understand why so many people think that it’s “thing”, but once the joke is explained to you, I don’t get how you can still argue against “think”. Of course “think” is not used in the normal sense! And if it were replaced with “thought” (or a word meaning a generic object), it wouldn’t be an old saying, it would be something someone said one time. Do you go around saying, “in my estimation, the lady protests too much”? Or, “you pay your money, and then you take your (choice|chances)”? Wait, let me guess, you think single mothers are always complaining about their “baby’s daddy”…
I can see why you’d think it’s think, and if that’s what you want to say, cool, but it’s thing. The old quotes from the OED are wrong, they just didn’t know it.
At least, when I say it, I am completely removed from your thought processes. You may think that X is going to happen but regardless of what you think, Y’s gonna bust your ass. I’m not telling you to rearrange your thoughts, I’m warning you that Y’s coming with or without your permission.
If you think that, sorry but you’ve got another thing coming.
Think. And like many others, I feel “thing” doesn’t make sense. In the usage of the expression there is often not a “thing” coming at all:
“If you think it should be “thing” you’ve got another think coming.”
What thing could possibly be coming to this person? Is “think” going to come flying through the air and hit them over the head? It would only work for situations in which an actual “thing” is coming:
“If you think you’re getting spaghetti for supper you’ve got another thing coming.”
It also makes it very dull expression, no wit to it all! I mean, yes, there is something other than spaghetti coming. :rolleyes: You could always twiddle your moustache and add “haha, think again!” to make the conversation interesting, I suppose.
Oh well, at least this thread is fighting my ignorance a little: I did think people who used “thing” were barely-literate fools, but it seems it is fairly widely accepted and by some respectable Dopers at that. So I will stop my mean judgement of the users of “thing” and replace it with only the very mildest form of contempt. Just for lack of imagination and theatricality.
Nah. It’s the Beavis and Butthead generation that did it. It’s the same bunch of clowns who think calling someone a nimrod is calling them an idiot or a fool.
I figured this as another American usage thing because among people I know I have never heard “thing” used in that sense.
It doesn’t surprise me that some concrete thinking types can’t see the joke in the correct phrase but perhaps they are not great fans of English as she is spoke.
It’s the only colloquial usage of “nimrod” I’m familiar with. Yes, I know the Biblical hunter and what the word means, but I’ve never heard anyone use it in its correct sense because, really, how often do you need that word? I assume it’s because of the Bugs Bunny reference (ironically calling Elmer Fudd a nimrod) and because it’s a funny sounding word.
Ah. Well. More ignorance fought today. I just thought Bugs Bunny was funny because Elmer Fudd is not Nimrod-like, he’s a silly little fat thing. To me it would only make sense as an insult of people who act like big awesome hunters. You might say “Well look at you, you Nimrod” to someone trying and failing to catch a mouse, or something.
Funny Americans and their funny language. Sidewalk. Cab. Color. Teehee
I’m in the “think” camp, but both variants make sense to me. I disagree with Chronos’s anti-thing argument, since in my mind the thing in question doesn’t have to be a tangible thing. The example, Ron Paul being elected President, is still a thing.
However, “another think coming” is a deliberately playful way of phrasing it, as one of the cites points out, and it is established that it is the original form. “Another thing coming” is pedestrian, in comparison.
That’s the reason that Bugs Bunny used the word, but most people my age were not familiar with the allusion and just assumed that “nimrod” was an epithet meaning “moron.”
Bugs Bunny sarcastically called Elmer Fudd a nimrod because Elemer was the absolute antithesis of the mighty hunter. Fudd couldn’t shoot a rabbit with a shotgun at point blank range.
As mentioned above by various other people, the whole phrase is “If you think X, then you’ve got another think coming.” In that sentence, thing is just non-sensical.
