Misunderstood Words or Phrases (meaning, quote)

[bjh]

varicose veins - heard as: very close veins

[Dirt Grinder]

Originally Posted by bjh

varicose veins - heard as: very close veins

That's called a malapropism.

[Unsettomati]

When 'jive' [as in, jive with the facts - by far the most common phrase in which it is used] should be 'jibe'.

The Mavens' Word of the Day

Everyone knows 'jive' but relatively few are familiar with the nautical 'jibe'.

Note - I am not one to get all bent and take such misuses as a personal affront; I merely find such things interesting.

[emcee squared]

I'm not sure if many of you are familiar with the TV show Trailer Park Boys, but one of the characters has many sayings where he misspeaks.

Bagminton - badminton.
Denial and error - trial and error.
Supply and command - supply and demand
Worst case Ontario - worst case scenario
Survival of the fitness - survival of the fittest

A personal favorite I sometimes hear, 'it's a doggy dog' world, instead of 'dog eat dog.'

[bjh]

all intensive purposes - for: all intents and purposes

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by bjh

all intensive purposes - for: all intents and purposes

My niece, who is an intelligent and well-educated woman in her thirties, said that and I called her on it. She was shocked to discover that "all intensive purposes" was not the saying.

And then...someone on City-Data recommended a PBS documentary called The Forgetting, about dementia. I started to watch it online and to my shock one of the experts speaking in the documentary says "for all intensive purposes". I replayed it to make sure I was hearing correctly. No one edited this?

[wutitiz]

'Beg the question' refers to a logical fallacy. It's a kind of circular reasoning where the 'proof' amounts to a presupposition that a contention is true. For example if someone said "Pres. Obama is the smartest president of my lifetime," then someone else said "how do you know?" and the response was "I can tell by listening to him that his IQ is higher than any of the others," this would be an example of 'begging the question.'
Fallacy: Begging the Question

Very often the phrase is misused, even by professional communicators, to mean 'provoke the question.'

[Vectoris]

When someone is presenting something, I've seen "Wallah" instead of "Voila!"

When I was a child, I completely reversed the meaning of "A sight for sore eyes." To this day, I have to think twice. I always thought it meant a sight that would makes one's eyes sore! Too embarrassed to reveal when I was set straight on this!!

[Dirt Grinder]

Originally Posted by Vectoris

When someone is presenting something, I've seen "Wallah" instead of "Voila!"...

The use of "wallah" and "viola" for voila is often intentional. The word has been misspelled so often, and the misspelling is so blatantly wrong, that misspelling the word becomes an "inside joke."

The same thing happened with "pwned" - it is now recognized as slang for owned.

"All your base are belong to us"

[bjh]

Originally Posted by emcee squared

I...
A personal favorite I sometimes hear, 'it's a doggy dog' world, instead of 'dog eat dog.'

A doggy dog world sounds like a happy place.