Hoisted by my own petard (to be foiled by your own plan), is a nice flowery one, although it actually makes sense. The bee's knees (for something excellent) is a good one that makes no sense. Wet behind the ears (inexperienced) is another cool one.
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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My father-in-law from rural west Texas refers to things as being 'slicker than owl shit' and some people as being 'richer than ten feet up a bull's ass.'
There are a lot of good Texasism. I was living in Texas when I first heard "Oh bless her heart.". Mean either she's a good person, or she's dumber than dog shit.
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"It's raining cats and dogs."
Somehow, heavy rain is represented by a downpour of household animals.
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"By and large" is a weird one. It's meaning is along the same lines as "all other things being equal." Is it a reference to large sample sizes?
It's made weirder by the fictional corporation name in Wall-E, "Buy 'n Large"
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My wife has worked with lots of people who are not native English speakers who are sometimes taken aback by the idioms. One colleague flat out refused to accept that "FOMO" is a word.
I suggested that she is in a position to make some up, like "Let's not put fish in the milk bucket." But she didn't go for it. I guess she's not an agent of chaos after all :/
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Mind your ps and qs. What are ps and qs?
I know there are lots of possible origins for this phrase, but I think of it as "pleases" and "thank yous". The "k" sound from "thank" followed by the word "you" combine to sound like the letter q.
I've heard that it means pints and quarts, referring to beers. I feel like I've also heard it was a typesetter thing.
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"it'll be a bloodbath in there!" *used for anything political wise.
"There's more than one way to skin a cat."
- You have a cat.
- You wish to remove its skin.
- You realize there's more than just one method to accomplish this unusual task.
- You state this proudly as a metaphor for problem-solving flexibility.
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Does the pope shit in the woods?
A humerous combo of 'Do bears shit in the woods?' and 'Is the Pope Catholic?' Which are two jokey ways of saying 'Yeah, obviously, duh'.
But does the pope shit in the woods?
No, but bears are catholic
No, he's trapped in the pope mobile , that thing isn't equipped for offroad travel
You can lead a whore to water, but you can't make her douche.
Yap, still guessing
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Dollars to donuts.
WTF does it even mean?
I'm so sure that this thing will happen, that I'm willing to make a bet whereby I'll pay you dollars if it doesn't happen, and you pay me donuts if it does. I feel like I'm getting free donuts and my dollars are not at risk.
Well, back in the day, a doughnut cost a lot less than a donut.
So, betting dollars against donuts would be a bad idea.
Not that it was ever a betting term, it just condone contains a reference to betting.
It's like saying "hey, lets get dinner. You give me a twig for every dollar I put in."
You're either exchanging something of unequal value, or making an "investment" where you get very little return on it.
Taking God's name in vain
- You invoke God on some topic you're wrong about.
- God appears and sees your worthless comment.
- ????
- God punishes you, or he backs away, or he learns to not listen to you anymore in boy cries wolf type situation? Its really not clear what the repercussions are.
No, no, it was originally "Taking God's name in vein," as saying the name of God out loud would allow Him into your blood. If you say the name of God, you allow him to inhabit your blood, gain your power, and become even more mighty. The ancient Hebrews feared God gaining too much power, as He would be able to destroy the world. Then Christians figured out that if they took Communion and instead drank the blood of Christ, they could reverse the Hebrew God's power and slowly increase their own until they could ascend to the heavens and do battle with the Almighty, empowered by His blood in their veins, rather than weakened by taking His name in vein. In this seventeen-part essay, I will describe how we can defeat God by
This is mind blowing if true. Is this real? What's going on here? Are you serious?
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This lore makes more sense than the bible.
The bible is a collection of thousands of years of oral history and societal laws put to paper generations after the fact, allegory and letters to random fuckers and varying accounts of a Jewish cult leader who was executed for crimes against the state. It's gonna have a potted narrative.
That's one that always bothered me too. When I say "Jesus fucking Christ" I mean it. Which is it's own weird ism when you think about it...
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"scientists say..."
They aren't some unified entity. They don't even agree amongst themselves on most things if one digs deep enough. While there is some interpretation of the data involved, most people that use the phrase "Scientists say..." are essentially saying "Objective observations done by several of the smartest humans have been argued over by several of their rivals resulting in..."
Like, we should start calling them something like Observational Data Warriors β’ /s to put perspective on the magnitude of information and depth involved. You can have an opinion but you are a coward of no relevant value if you are not trained for battle and fighting on the front lines. So whatever nonsense you have to say results in you looking like a clown of no note.
Scientists say "im off to work dear, see you this afternoonβ.
but seriously, we have to trust experts in STEM just to get through our day. Every time someone give the "scientists can be wrong tooβ line i look up at the ceiling as if its about to collapse. Sure science is about continuous improvement and falsifiability but that guys PHD is not equivalent to your youtube recomendations pipeline.
"I'm not here to fuck spiders" - said by Australians who want to drop the preamble and get down to business.
And here I was, just assuming that to be true about most people...
How inconsiderate of me.
Well, it's Australia. Spiders have the vote.
That's hilarious, I should try that out
Nah, surprise everyone.
Leap into the room, exclaim "I'm here to fuck spiders", then drop trou and hump a cobweb.
Keep the bastards guessing