Figures of Speech

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I suppose an 'unnecessary cost' is something that doesn't need to be paid in future. A 'waste of money' is something that you've already paid in the past and you won't get anything in return for it.

But still, those phrases are so close in meaning that the person shouldn't get arsey with you.

I saw a documentary a while back about dementia, and a woman with dementia was asked by a doctor to explain what "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" means, as part of a cognitive test. And I realized that I don't know how to explain that saying either! Although I kind of know what it means, intuitively.

"Dont look a gift horse in the mouth" isnt so bad. The connotation is: dont assess a gift they way you would a potential purchase. just be grateful, or at least act that way. And even a modern suburban kid can kinda guess that its a reference to how farmers used to check out a horse's teeth to assess the potential draft animal's health (like 'kicking a cars tires" which is also an anachronism now)when shopping around.

Hi All,
I'm chuckling and feeling right at home now (just joined). I was trained as a High School English teacher, I read voraciously and always considered myself really good with words. I'm in that phase of understanding my autism (recently diagnosed) and constantly being surprised. Loved this post as it made me realise I always assumed that 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' had something to do with the Trojan Horse story, and the picture in my head when I hear it (I always picture idioms literally in my head) is of Odysseus' warriors streaming out of the Trojan horse's mouth to sack Troy.

Think I might stick to that picture anyway!

Welcome to WP.

Glad that you liked my post.

So..I hate to break it to you that...if the "gift horse" referenced were the one in the Iliad it would warn you to do the opposite. To ALWAYS "put a gift horse through a metal detector" because it might contain danger. Not to "never" do it.

And there IS the expression "never accept gifts from Greeks" that does reference the gift horse in the Iliad to mean exactly that.

I know that when someone says it's raining cats and dogs they simply mean it's raining hard, but I still have the visual image of cats and dogs falling so I always have that "pause" moment for idioms. NTs are more likely to take an idiom at face value and not think about it.

A kid in some grade school class I was in said "its raining cows and horses" to indicate that it was REALLY raining hard. Never heard that expression since.

I am sure everyone gets a visual of the animals falling. Just like you may know that "buffalo wings" are made from chicken wings, and that they are so called because the recipe was invented in Buffalo New York, but when you see a sign on a venue advertising them you still get that momentary image of...a herd of bison flapping their tiny little wings while they cross the sky!

I never knew that about buffalo wings. I don't think they are called that in England though, just normal chicken wings.

There are quite a few expressions that folks use without thought to the origins.

Like 'singing a swan song'.

Like "it has sung its' swan song" meaning its "on its last legs" ..."its practically already dead".

In college I read an essay written in 1947 by George Orwell on "how politcs debases language", and he observed that back then he "constantly sees writers say 'the fascist octopus has sung its' swan song'".

Hilarious because its a mixed metaphor (octopus...swans).

But in my mind it got worse.

I always assumed that the term "swan song" had something to do with the ballet "Swan Lake". Maybe there was a dying swan scene in it.

But I learned that it actually comes from an ancient Greek belief that swans let out a song just before they die. A myth. Swans dont do that...except recently scientists found a species in Siberia that actually DOES do that. But I digress.

So the expression has to do with supposed actual swan behavior and has nothing to do with Swan Lake.

But I also learned that there IS a dying swan scene in Swan Lake.

Any way you slice it...it adds up to a strange visual.

You have an octopus. But he is "fascist" octopus. So maybe...he is dressed up a military officers uniform? With eight sleaves? Eight epaulettes? And on his face is a Hitler mustache?

But then he ...performs a ...swan song?

So over his uniform you place a tutu. A nice girly tutu.

Then he breaks out into singing an operatic aria.

And then he dances like this before he expires:


https://youtu.be/kJ4uowripdw

Quite a mental workout to try to imagine!

Well duhhhh... Obviously "a stitch in time..." was my deliberate abbreviation for the expression that everyone knows...which is..."a stitch in time save nine".

But save nine of...what?

Its not obvious.