Expressions That Don't Make Sense

Tovidious

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Exactly!

"It takes one to know one" is usually used in a mocking or derogative way. When someone says someone else is an idiot, or whatever derogatory term, a reply could be "It takes one to know one," meaning that only someone who is also an idiot would recognize another idiot.

"Only a person with identical character traits would be able to recognize those traits in someone else. Often used as a curt rejoinder to deflect an accusation; you're only saying that about me because it's true of you. Originated in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century."
From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).
 

Tovidious

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Here you go, Domisoldo. I found these and they made my day. lol

French Expressions you didn’t learn in French class

Il pète plus haut que son cul. / He is pretentious.
(literal: He farts higher than his ass.)

Il est coiffé comme un dessous de bras. / He’s having a bad hair day. (His hair is dressed like an armpit.)

J’ai la tête dans le cul ce matin. / I have a lot of trouble waking up this morning.
(My head is in my ass this morning.)

Il faut que j’aille couler un bronze. / I need to take a dump.
(I need to cast a bronze sculpture.)

Il secoue le poireau. / He’s masturbating. (He’s shaking the leek.)

Il va degorger le poireau. / He’s going to piss.
(He’s going to squeeze out the leek.)

Il branle le mammouth. / He procrastinates.
(He jerks off the mammoth.)

Il se fait des couilles en or. / He makes a lot of money.
(He is making himself golden balls.)

Cette fille, c’est un thon. / That girl is very ugly.
(This girl is a tuna fish.)

Il n’a jamais trempé son biscuit. / He is still a virgin.
(He has never dipped his cookie.)


Il nous en chie une pendule. / He’s making a big fuss about it.
(He’s shitting a wall clock about it.)

Il nous en chie une pendule à treize coups. / He’s making a VERY big fuss about it.
(He’s shitting a thirteen-stroke wall clock about it.)

C’est un enculeur de mouches. / He’s a nitpicker.
(He screws the flies.)

Il a le cul bordé de nouilles. / He is extremely lucky.
(He has noodles all around his ass.)

Il chie de la broue. / he’s lying.
(Brew is coming out of his ass.)
 

Rubber_JonnyN

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How about calling a car that doesn't work a "lemon?"

Perfectly good little yellow fruit, nice and tangy in drinks and so forth. What does that have to do with cars that don't run right?
As far as I'm aware, if you call someone a lemon, it means they're a lesbian. lmfao. xD Or acting like one. Just like you'd say "That's gay that like." Well I would. xD
 

Principessa

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He thinks who the hell he is.

8 days to Sunday wrong.

This makes perfect sense to me.
I am too big for my britches, according to my father. I don't really know what this means.
It means you're acting grown while still a child.

A fly in the ointment.
My history teacher never understood that. I thought it was because flies are dirty and they taint the ointment, possibly making it ineffective :confused:
That is what I thought as well.
 

bluesteel81

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"having your cake and eat to". This makes no sense to me at all, shouldnt it be something like he has cake but still want another slice. i think that makes more sense.
 

Tovidious

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I thought the term lemon for a car referred to the bitter taste it left you with because it was bad, or sour, car or deal. I can't find any other reason so far.

I never heard lemon for lesbian, but hey, I keep learning new things. I found: "The Cassell Dictionary of Slang gives both Lemon and Lemonade as referring to lesbians. Originally a 'lemon' was an unattractive woman, probably describing a sour expression. Both words are primarily Australian slang, and didn't come to mean lesbian until the 1980s."

Here's a new one I found: Lemon is "A sexual game played by horny high school students. The names of five boys are written down, as well as five things one can do with a lemon, five girls, five female body parts, and five location. They are then numbered from one to five in a random order to create amusing sentences." Go figure!

I never heard of "He thinks who the hell he is" or "Eight days to Sunday wrong." Never mind their origins, what do they mean?

An expression I never could figure out was "that sucks." It seems to me that if something sucks, (like a vacuum cleaner), or someone sucks (use your imagination), it is a good thing. (Especially if someone sucks ME.) Please feel free to explain to me why "that sucks" is a bad thing rather than a good thing. I prefer the saying "that rots," since I have yet to find any thing that rots to be desirable.
 

Tovidious

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bluesteel81, see what Calboner wrote:

The expression is, or at least was: "He wants to eat his cake and have it too" -- i.e., to eat it and still have cake to eat. The meaning is clear and coherent: to want both of two incompatible things. But the expression has become commonly garbled to "He wants to have his cake and eat it too" (not to "He wants his cake and eat it too," which is not even grammatical), which is senseless, since of course you have to have your cake before you can eat it.
 

Calboner

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Here is one that has always bothered me: "That'll teach you to . . ." -- e.g., "That'll teach you to be a smart-aleck!", when what is meant is that something will teach you not to be a smart-aleck; but if you say "That'll teach you not to be a smart-aleck," people will think that you mean that the person should be a smart-aleck!
 

Tovidious

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When it rains, it pours describes how after there has been no rain for a long time, it suddenly rains a lot all at once. Example: "It hadn't rained for over two months. Now it has started raining and it has been raining for a week straight."

When it rains, it pours means that once something happens after a long pause, it happens in large amounts. Example: "It looks like everyone in our department is sick again, and all at the same time."



The other place one finds that saying is from Morton Salt. The iconic Umbrella Girl and her famous slogan, “When It Rains It Pours,” made Morton Salt an advertising legend. In that case, it means that when it rains, Morton salt does not stick together and get lumpy, but still pours from the container.

Morton®Salt - when it rains it pours®
 

midlifebear

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Shit on a shingle, whom the hell eats shit and why would they serve it on a shingle, :smile:

As far as I know (and that ain't far) Shit on a shingle came from WWI (possibly earlier) when soldiers were regularly fed chipped (dried) beef re-hydrated in milk and served on dry or toasted bread (or hard tac, which was even worse).

I remember my grandfather often complaining that my grandmother was trying to poison us with "Shit on a shingle" whenever she soaked jerked beef, shredded it, cooked it slowly in a cream sauce and served in on toast points with the crusts cut off for dinner. It certainly looked like shit on a shingle.

In my grandmother's world (Zacatecas) machaca (rehydrated dried beef) is a common food often mixed and fried up with leftover chunks of corn tortillas, chile's, chorizo, and a few eggs: the result being chilaquiles. Completely different dish, though.

Some other common expressions I often hear used in the USA:

Between a rock and a hard place. (Oh, how utterly unprofound)

Either fish or cut bait.
(Again, such a lack of inventive verbal skills)

Up to his ass in alligators. (Is that better than swimming with the fishes?)

and then there is

Read my lips. (Why, can't you speak properly?)