What are some dumb phrases you know of that are just porly thought out or make no sense?

One I've mentioned on DD before is:
"Double edged sword"
It's used to describe a situation where something can be helpful but also harmful to you. It's absolute nonsense though because BOTH edges of a double edged sword are only harmful to your enemy.
This was a phrase thought up by an imbecile.

“You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear”
This phrase means that you can't make something good and of something bad. Except that a pig leather purse would be a FAR better thing that a silly silk purse, which will quickly fray and fall apart. The pig leather is fine and soft and will last for ages and look great.
This one was just poorly thought out

“It's a cake walk!”
Describing something easy.
This is stupid because NO ONE knows what it refers to anymore and there's no context clues inside it to even give a clue what it was or what it was easy. Terms like “the whole 9 yards” are also obscure but at lease it has an internal context so it is sort of understandable (9 yards is A LOT).
BTW a “cake walk” was some sort of dance contest that black Americans took part in to win a cake apparently. Why it's supposedly incredibly easy I don't know. If it was a contest it was probably hard.

…can't think of anymore

In the US, the whole nine yards is readily understood as a reference to American football. A gain of ten yards is a first down so “the whole nine yards ” infers you went the whole way.
Still stupid but easily understood as a sports metaphor.

Double edged sword I've never understood because it's not applicable to a sword. A double edged blade I can understand as there is no way to handle a double edged razor blade without slicing your fingers to pieces. However, a single edge razor blade can he handled without cutting yourself. So I use “blade” rather than “sword” and it's a useful metaphor.

There are many others, a lot coming from Shakespeare that made sense four hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago. We have to remember that fifty years ago was the 1974 and most of these sayings were obsolete then as snapping your fingers and going “dy-no-MITE!” Would be now.

An example of a fifty year old metaphor that still might make sense is "jumping the shark. Once Ritchie left Happy Days it was over. Pure and simple. But the producers kept it going and came up with the gimmick of Fonzi jumping a shark on his motorcycle. So not knowing it's time to give up is “jumping the shark”. Not too many remember Ron Howard was once an actor, let alone there was a nostalgic TV sitcom about growing up in the 1950s called Happy Days but there you go.

It should go into the trash bin with “cake walk” or jumping the broom.

Mostly forgotten now jumping the broom meant taking a really big step in your life. It came from the tradition of a newly married couple symbolically setting up housekeeping by stepping over a broom. Among African Americans who often could not legally marry it was their stand in for the marriage ceremony. Some places they still do it, but the saying died.

In the cat bird seat from a 1930s sports writer it meant in an advantageous position. No one really remembers what a car bird seat was.
From the same writer came the term “copescetic” meaning the person can cope with their current situation.
In like Flynn someone who has everything going for him. Believe it or not it predates Errol Flynn who was called “in like Flynn ” because he did seemingly have everything going for him.

The whole baseball bases analogy for how far a guy gets with a girl. Can you really get any more sexist? Can we leave that in the past like so many off-color sayings born of bigotry?

What about“loose Cannon”
As in “you blew up that orphanage full of nuns, McBane. You're a real loose Cannon”

Or“hold your horses” which I assume is a red
Red dead redemption reference.

Theses “ let the cat out of the bag” which refers to an old Tom and Jerry episode that was Tom's origen story where he was tossed into a river with his brothers and sisters when they were kittens. Someone let him out of the proverbial bag, thusly he became Jerry's nemises.


And finally saying something is “ on blue light special” as in there phrase “Micheal Jackson rushed to the blue light special at kmart because he heard that little boys pants were half off”




Blue lights flashing in my Kmart mansion. I'm in the style department….

Word to the wise
Technically it's a trimmed down “a word to the wise is sufficient”, or just a fancier way of saying “if you're smart you'll listen”, but the truncated version just sounds like you're giving out a random compliment with your advice, or suggesting you'd have to be a genius to get what's usually pretty basic advice.

Break a leg
Apparently it's bad luck in show business to say “good luck” in show business so they settled for telling people to cripple themselves in a painful manner instead.

You've got another think coming
“Think” isn't a noun, and there's no reason it couldn't have been “thought”. It's no wonder people keep mistaking the phrase as “you have another thing coming”, which also works better than the original.

bravo1102 wrote:
In the US, the whole nine yards is readily understood as a reference to American football. A gain of ten yards is a first down so “the whole nine yards ” infers you went the whole way.
Still stupid but easily understood as a sports metaphor.

It's actually older, no one knows quite where it came came from (which is why you said “readily understood”, I know :) ). I looked into that a few years ago. One popular myth was that it referred to the belts of 50cal ammunition on the gun emplacements on the bombers, which wasn't where it came from at all but it fit well enough.
It's just about referring to a length of something so can apply to anything and work, from anchor chain, lines on a sailing ship, the depth of a grave, whatever.

We know the attribution is dubious because the written records of the length changes.

bravo1102 wrote:
In the cat bird seat from a 1930s sports writer it meant in an advantageous position. No one really remembers what a car bird seat was.
From the same writer came the term “copescetic” meaning the person can cope with their current situation.
In like Flynn someone who has everything going for him. Believe it or not it predates Errol Flynn who was called “in like Flynn ” because he did seemingly have everything going for him.

I always wondered about those! They're all nonsense to me haha- I mean the Flynn one is obvious but it's easy to see that it's older than him because it was too well formed to have come from popculture or gossip of the time. He was very lucky with it though… crazy Tasmanian sex-fiend.

lothar wrote:
What about“loose Cannon”
As in “you blew up that orphanage full of nuns, McBane. You're a real loose Cannon”

HAHAHA! That one is obvious but yes, it's VERY misunderstood! You're right.
It comes from canons on a ship. They had wheels so they could roll back and help with recoil after firing. They had to be tied so they'd only go back a little way and only in a straight line.
A “loose cannon” would roll all over the place after recoiling, or just with the movement of the ship and injure crewmen.
But the way people think of it now is that it's a gun that will be firing randomly. Which is dumb.

lothar wrote:
Or“hold your horses” which I assume is a red
Red dead redemption reference.

LOL! Obviously just about real horses. It means “reign in” in stop. People now think it's about keeping a hold of horses so they don't run away, but it's actually telling a rider to stay still. SO yep, it's outdated.

lothar wrote:
Theses “ let the cat out of the bag” which refers to an old Tom and Jerry episode that was Tom's origen story where he was tossed into a river with his brothers and sisters when they were kittens. Someone let him out of the proverbial bag, thusly he became Jerry's nemises.

Probably comes from people transporting cats in bags to deal with rat infestations- or the darker thing of drowning an unwanted cat.
It IS archaic and not really related to what it means- a shocking secret getting out and causing trouble. The cat would cause trouble but it wasn't a secret.

lothar wrote:
And finally saying something is “ on blue light special” as in there phrase “Micheal Jackson rushed to the blue light special at kmart because he heard that little boys pants were half off”

HA! No idea about that one.

Hapoppo wrote:
Word to the wise
Technically it's a trimmed down “a word to the wise is sufficient”, or just a fancier way of saying “if you're smart you'll listen”, but the truncated version just sounds like you're giving out a random compliment with your advice, or suggesting you'd have to be a genius to get what's usually pretty basic advice.

True!

Hapoppo wrote:Break a leg
Apparently it's bad luck in show business to say “good luck” in show business so they settled for telling people to cripple themselves in a painful manner instead.

Yeah, that one is silly. I'm sure not ALL theatre people are superstitious in the same moronic was so that could never have bee as cross cultural and universal as people imagine.

Hapoppo wrote:You've got another think coming
“Think” isn't a noun, and there's no reason it couldn't have been “thought”. It's no wonder people keep mistaking the phrase as “you have another thing coming”, which also works better than the original.

I never knew it was “think” haha!

Hook, line and sinker This one is usually preceded by “fell for” implying that the person took the bait and bought into this new thing all the way taking the fisherman's whole thing. Except that in real life if a fish did take the bait, hook, line and sinker it would get away because there's nothing left for the fisherman to reel it in. XD 🤣

Lock, stock and barrel meaning everything together, the whole kit and kaboodle to use another metaphor to explain it. “Lock, stock and barrel” refers to the parts necessary to have a working firearm back in the 16th-17th century. The saying was already in use during the American War of Independence.
But what is a “kaboodle”? Kit is a term for gear and kaboodle is an obsolete word for “everything” so “kit and kaboodle ” is everything and more.

One refers to guns from four centuries ago and the other has an obsolete word in it. Time to give them up.

Break a leg when I was in high school drama we typically told each other this not wanting bad luck. Until one cast member broke their leg skiing. He wasn't recast and was on crutches for rehearsals but used a cane for the performance which worked for the characters.
I quipped that we had wished him “break a leg” one time too much and he had taken our advice.
Bad luck followed this production as the lead had great trouble getting his lines and was so afraid opening night that he didn't come to school because of severe intestinal distress. Since he hadn't been in school the rule was he couldn't do tge extracurricular activity so a replacement had to be found instantly and the faculty advisor went on in his stead. So this production got bad luck both with and without “break a leg” But at least it wasn't the Scottish Play 🤣 lol

In italian we have a saying equivalent to "break a leg", that is in bocca al lupo (in the mouth of the wolf), to which one has to respond "crepi il lupo!" (The wolf shall die!).

This also cames from the idea that saying just “good luck” will actually bring bad luck.

This sayng has then spawned a parallel one that is "in culo alla balena" (in the ass of the whale). However I don't think there is a correct answer for the second version.

marcorossi wrote:
In italian we have a saying equivalent to "break a leg", that is in bocca al lupo (in the mouth of the wolf), to which one has to respond "crepi il lupo!" (The wolf shall die!).

This also cames from the idea that saying just “good luck” will actually bring bad luck.

This sayng has then spawned a parallel one that is "in culo alla balena" (in the ass of the whale). However I don't think there is a correct answer for the second version.

The whale wouldn't feel a thing.

Hapoppo wrote:
Break a leg
Apparently it's bad luck in show business to say “good luck” in show business so they settled for telling people to cripple themselves in a painful manner instead.

I always liked the justification that it was a good phrase for auditions because if you break a leg it means you're in the cast. Get it? *ba-dum tish* It must, of course, be noted that this is NOT the origin of the phrase…I just really wish it was.

I actually really love finding the wacky and obscure origins of popular phrases. It's fascinating. (I'm also the type of weirdo that like to look up the origins of words for funsies.) Growing up I always thought blowing smoke up my/your ass was just some hyperbolic silliness to highlight ephemeral promises - you know, because smoke doesn't stick around for long and “ass” is a provocative word. BUT NO! Turns out people used to - quite literally - blow smoke up each other's asses for medical reasons, and the obvious stupidity of the practice in hindsight led to the mocking phrase!

…If anyone could explain the origins of bob's your uncle to me, though, I'd appreciate it. I've looked it up a few times and only found confused shrugs. lol I'm assuming it's probably born out of rhyming slang, but who even knows.

dragonsong12 wrote:
…If anyone could explain the origins of bob's your uncle to me, though, I'd appreciate it. I've looked it up a few times and only found confused shrugs. lol I'm assuming it's probably born out of rhyming slang, but who even knows.

I looked it up and found this:

The phrase was coined when Arthur James Balfour, an Irish politician, was promoted to Chief Secretary of Ireland in 1887 by an act of nepotism by his uncle Robert, Lord Salisbury.

And Bob's yer uncle, hopefully that solves it for ya! 😄

(Edit for extra context): It's basically another way of saying “you're all set”, for anyone unfamiliar with the phrase.

Bob's your uncle later took on a another meaning because “bob” was slang for a shilling so it not only referred to nepotism but also bribery. Give a bribe and the official will treat you like they were your uncle. (Wink, wink)

Other folkloristic italian saying:

- chi visse sperando morì… non si può dire!

- who lived hoping died… it can't be said!

There are various theories of what is the thing that can't be said, but the most likely is:

- chi visse sperando morì cagando

- who lived hoping died shitting

which unfortunately doesn't make much sense. The general idea is that hopes by themselves are worthless.

Ozoneocean wrote:

“It's a cake walk!”
Describing something easy.
This is stupid because NO ONE knows what it refers to anymore and there's no context clues inside it to even give a clue what it was or what it was easy. Terms like “the whole 9 yards” are also obscure but at lease it has an internal context so it is sort of understandable (9 yards is A LOT).
BTW a “cake walk” was some sort of dance contest that black Americans took part in to win a cake apparently. Why it's supposedly incredibly easy I don't know. If it was a contest it was probably hard.

The origin of this dance is thought to be a covert way in which slaves could publicly take the piss out of their white owners, by mocking their ridiculous dance styles. I'm fighting to keep this one for that reason.

“Same difference”
Anyone who says this has lost all hope and reason. Obviously the difference between the incorrect thing you were thinking and the reality is the same whichever side you look at it from. There's a thin line between clever and stupid but of course, but the difference is the same.

“I Beg To Differ”
Just differ for goodness sake and drop the passive aggressive sneer.

“A stitch in time saves nine”
Until the age of about forty I thought this was an esoteric reference to time and space, with the ‘nine’ representing the unknowable secret of the universe, like 42. For instance, if someone said “My life is falling apart at the seams” you could reply “A stich in time saves nine” and all would be well.
It's not really stupid, but when I found out what it really meant, I was so disappointed I've hated it ever since.

“More than you can shake a stick at”
I don't claim to be a stick shaking expert, but whatever your stick shaking ability is, I don't think the quantity of stuff you are shaking it at plays a huge part. If you can shake your stick at four lemons for instance, you could probably shake it just as effectively at thirty four lemons.

“I beg your pardon”
More begging, but this one would make perfect sense if it meant ‘please excuse me, I need to leave’. Instead it means ‘What did you say? how very dare you!’, which makes no sense whatsoever.

Yeah, even a British friend of mine is familiar with and uses, “The whole nine yards,” so it's not quite as strictly American as one might think.

It's not so much phrases that bother me, but rather, one of my pet peeves is when people take a word or slang term that's already been in existence in our vocabulary, but then give them whole completely different new meanings that have absolutely nothing to do with the original definition whatsoever, which makes it so confusing, especially among generational differences. Just a few specific examples I can give are. . . .

Stan: This was popular in the mid and late New Tens, and apparently was used as a verb to describe your being a big fan of someone or something; i.e. “I stan Drunk Duck!” What was so hard about simply saying, “I'm a fan of Drunk Duck,” or, “I'm a Drunk Duck fan”?

Simp: This one drove me crazy for the longest time; it used to be a shortened slang term for “simpleton,” or to say that somebody was simple-minded, but now, similar to “Stan,” is means that you're so overly obsessive about somebody or something that it lives completely rent-free in your head; i.e. “I'm a Drunk Duck simp!”

Sick and Wicked: Both being used by the younger crowd to describe something as being really cool or awesome; i.e. “Dude, those shoes are totally sick/wicked!” Despite the former meaning that someone is ill, and the latter describing someone or something as being cruel and evil. Come to think of it, “Sick” was also once a slang term used to describe someone or something as being gross and/or disgusting.

Sex: Somehow in written media, “sex” has become something of an umbrella term for not just the act of such, but also the consenting party's genitals as well; i.e. “He positioned his sex to thrust into hers.” Is this somehow to avoid using the actual words for such parts, like “penis” or “vagina,” while also still trying to seem mature and grown-up to avoid using the kiddy equivalents like “pee-pee” and such?

No wonder they say English is the hardest language to learn.

Now, if there is one phrase that does kind of bother me that's really popular with Millennials and Zoomers, it's, “You're not wrong.” It seems to me it's a way of avoiding actually saying, “You're right,” because it would otherwise bruise your own ego and pride. That's just me though.

Sex as a euphemism for genitals goes way back into 1960s and 70s (possibly earlier) soft core porn as well as male adventure fiction. It was almost a sure sign you were reading a mass market hack written series novel. The kind of stuff that was mix and match genre fiction that seemed machine written but was actually pounded out by some struggling writer at pennies a word.

I got curious about the “sex” thing, because it is sometimes used for genitals in italian too, but in italian sounds very old.

It turns out that in latin “sex” (written the same of english) meant both sex in general and the genitals.

So this could be a use that comes from latin.

https://www.latin-dictionary.net/definition/34961/sexus-sex

Edited for better link

Wicked as positive slang term is also pretty old. At least in NE US where it originated. It's been slang there for three quarters of a century at this point so it's hard to call it new.
But if you want to go that route, can't you basically do this with ALL slang? I mean, “cool” and “awesome” (and also “radical” from my teens) hardly hold up to original definitions. And some words that we think of the definitions as being obvious or settled have also already changed a lot from their origins. (Like “robot” for example originally meant “forced labor” - while that's not TOO strange a path to where we are now, you could still call our use of it weird slang. lol)

And THIS is why I find the origins of words so fascinating. …and also why nothing in this thread really bothers me personally that much - though I DO understand that pet peeves are what they are, so no shade. (I see what I did there, but I didn't have time to think of a better way to phrase it. Haha!)

Hapoppo wrote:

Break a leg
Apparently it's bad luck in show business to say “good luck” in show business so they settled for telling people to cripple themselves in a painful manner instead.

The Germans had to take the same expression even further with “Hals und Beinbruch,” which translates to “break a leg and your neck”

And let's not forget about initialisms and weird contractions:

FOMO: fear of missing out
YOLO: you only live once
POMO: post-modern

STAN comes from the Eminem video. It doesn't just mean you're a fan. You're an obsessive fan that also adopts the look of your idol.


SIMP I've only ever heard it used for a man that is excessively deferential to a woman. A pathetic doormat.


Then there's CUCK a man who has been cheated on, knowingly or not. It comes from some bird.

My impression of cuck was that it was somebody was actually aroused by willingly watching their partner engage in sexual acts with somebody else.

I guess I should have also noted that certain slang is quite cyclical, and that sick and wicked has become popular with the younger crowd again in recent years . . . to a lesser extent, so has totally, which, as most of us know, was huge in the 80s (more specifically, when used to proceed tubular).

Oh, and remember when epic was big from the late 2000s and into the mid New Tens; i.e. “OHHH! EPIC FAIL!” When I was in 7th grade in 2001-2002, all the kids would say triflin' as an adjective; i.e. “That's so triflin'!” and I had absolutely no idea what they meant.

@J_Scarbrough

the “triflin” thing could be more cultural I've heard it all my life,
its a misuse of trifle or trifling.
It means a act or something is bad or not right

Makes sense. IIRC, I think it was popularized in a rap song during that particular year of my life (which, again, would have made sense; my middle school was in the ghetto, so rap was what a lot of the kids listened to).

Oh, here's one that's become very popular on social media in the last couple of years or so that makes no sense:

Don't @ me

At first glance, you would assume that with the @ symbol in such a phrase, that you are requesting to not be tagged in a post or media, but apparently, the phrase actually means you don't want to be judged for something . . . and if that's the case, why, why, why can't people simply say, “Don't judge me” when that actually makes sense?

This one is more of a spelling thing than anything, but why is the abbreviation fridge spelled with a D when the actual word refrigerator has no D in it?