Comments on: Are you getting these 19 common expressions wrong?

By: Virginia Linares

Virginia Linares — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 21:55:23 +0000

Wrecking havoc instead of wreaking havoc. Makes my skin crawl!

By: Arv Danielson

Arv Danielson — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 02:17:10 +0000

One of the things that bugs me most is that people often feel that it sounds more proper to use the word “I” rather than “me”. “Just between you and I” makes me shiver. And vice versa, “Me and her went to a movie” is just as bad. I even knew someone who would start a sentence with “Them are…” Sorry, but “Them” can only be the subject of a sentence if you are talking about the grade B science fiction movie about giant ants!

By: Arv Danielson

Arv Danielson — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 02:15:29 +0000

Something else that I always get a kick out of is when someone refers to something that is scarce as “far and few between”, which doesn’t make near as much sense as the correct phrase “few and far between”.

By: Arv Danielson

Arv Danielson — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 02:12:28 +0000

By: Brock Lupton

Brock Lupton — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 07:05:18 +0000

A recent misused word is “fulsome”. I had always understood it to mean “disgusting by excess” but it seems now to be widely accepted as meaning “thorough” or “comprehensive”. It’s hard to resist a fulsome reaction (in both senses).

By: James McCourt

James McCourt — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 13:34:11 +0000

Many years ago my mother “invented” “old timer’s disease.” She was a bit deaf at the time, and a few of us too her out for drinks after a revival of “On Your Toes,” the Rodgers and Hart Musical starring the great Russian dancer Natalia Makarovs — she had seen the original production starring Tamara Geva and choreographed by George Balanchine, then entering senile dementia, dreaming he was a boy again, in St. Petersburg, a little star of the Maryinsky Ballet, sitting in Czar Nicholas II’s lap in the royal box.
We said it was a shame he was suffering from Alzheeimer’s disease, but at least he was not in great mental distress, rather the opposite, and she said, “But he’s not such an old timer as that.” and she wasn’t being clever.

By: Lee Payne

Lee Payne — Sat, 08 Apr 2023 06:38:40 +0000

One of my favorites:

“Kissin kin” instead of “kith and kin”

By: Stephen Donovan

Stephen Donovan — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 20:18:57 +0000

My annoyance is when there is a terrible disaster is reported on the news and they refer to it as being decimated. While a terrible disaster to be sure, if more than 10% were affected, it is not Decimation.

Decimation was a form of Roman military discipline in which every tenth man in a group was executed by members of his cohort. The discipline was used by senior commanders in the Roman army to punish units or large groups guilty of capital offences, such as cowardice, mutiny, desertion, and insubordination, and for pacification of rebellious legions. The procedure was an attempt to balance the need to punish serious offences with the realities of managing a large group of offenders.

By: Sue

Sue — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 06:07:03 +0000

I can’t phantom why someone would eat a huge sammich when he is trying to curve his weight.

By: Brian Draper

Brian Draper — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 16:53:25 +0000

Some years ago now,as an Insurance man I helped many complete proposals for motor insurance. Often they would admit to a motoring offenceof ” driving with due care and attention”!