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Phrases Gone Wrong

There are lots of phrases in English whose original meanings have been forgotten. This leads to them being unwittingly misquoted, misused and misspelled.

It’s not necessarily easy to determine the origin of many phrases, and if you do an online search, you’ll usually find a range of suggested origins. But at least, with such an investigation, you can determine what the actual phrase is.

Here are some phrases that I commonly hear or see misused.

Heart wrenching

While not necessarily incorrect English, the standard phrase is “heart rending”. To rend is to tear apart, so something that is heart rending tears your heart apart—metaphorically, of course.

Another, even worse version of this phrase is “heart rendering”—which renders my poor heart beatless with dismay.

On tenderhooks

A tenter is a framework on which fabric is stretched for drying or for other treatments. By analogy, if people are “on tenterhooks”, it’s because they are worried or anxious about a future event.

Cut off you nose despite your face

This is a simple example of mishearing a phrase and assuming the wrong words. The real phrase is “Cut off you nose to spite your face”. To spite means to hurt, take revenge on etc. So the idea is that you are angry with your face and cut off your nose “to spite” it … which means that you are pretty stupid, because you are really just hurting yourself.

You are said to “cut off your nose to spite your face” when you take an action that really just hurts you more than anything else.

Full proof

This phrase clearly isn’t fool proof, given how regularly it is abused.

First-come, first-serve

This would imply that the first person who turns up gets the first go at serving everyone else? I don’t think so. The idea is that the first one to turn up gets served first.

I could care less

O, could you? Well, then, you must care at least a little bit. The idea is that you care so little that you couldn’t possibly are any less. In other words, you couldn’t care less.

Change track

I guess you might be getting on a different train or something, but otherwise, you probably mean that you are changing tack. In sailing, changing direction is called “changing tack”.

Another variation of this is “Change tact”—tact possibly from “tactics”? Anyhow, it’s wrong. Tact is to do with sensitivity and adroitness, not direction or even tactics.

Old in the tooth

Some animals’ teeth get longer as they get older, so if you declare that you’re “long in the tooth”, it means you’re old. If you declare that you’re “old in the tooth”, it means you’re old and stupid.

It gets my shackles up

Anyone who uses this should be in shackles.

When an animal like a dog gets angry or defensive, the hairs along the top of its back—its hackles—rise up. This one really gets my hackles up.

Risk adverse

Well, it’s true that you risk adverse consequences unless you are risk averse—without the d—which means that you are wary of or dislike taking risks.

Another version of this is “I’m not adverse” … but of course you are, because you are harming the English language—harmful being the essential meaning of adverse.

Right off the back

Well, you got that wrong, right off the bat. It means right at the starting point—like at the very moment you hit the ball with your bat.

Dry reaching

Unless you are thirsty and reaching for a drink, you should be saying “dry retching”—which means vomiting without anything coming out of your mouth … or the reaction I have when I hear people say “dry reaching”.

Cut and dry

The idea is that something is already prepared, arranged or done (possibly in advance), so both words should be in the past tense—cut and dried—kind of like “done and dusted”.

According to one reference I consulted, it originated from herbs that were “cut and dried” before sale.

Free reign

We all want to be king of the world, but to have real freedom is to have “free rein”—as when a horseman relaxes the reins to allow the horse to move freely.

Lay of the land

Lots of people seem afraid to use the word “lie” (even though they seemingly have no compunction about lying their heads off), so the word lay gets overused instead.

The lie of the land is its topography, or how it lies.

Lie, lie, lie! It’s not always a bad word! … O man, I think I need to lie down.

A shoe in

Well, if you write it like that, you’ll have your shoe in your mouth when you learn that the phrase is actually spelled shoo-in. A shoo-in is someone or something that is pretty much guaranteed of success. It apparently comes from horse racing, from the verb “shoo”, which involves steering or guiding. A horse is a shoo-in if it’s pretty much guaranteed to win.

Beyond the pail

Another spelling issue, but one demonstrating that the real meaning is long forgotten. Something is “beyond the pale” if it’s outside the bounds of what’s considered acceptable—a pale representing a pole or fence, as in “paling fence”.

One verse another

Unless this is some kind of poetry competition, this is wrong. People are seemingly becoming less familiar with the word versus, which means against or in opposition to.

There’s also a lot of confusion over how to abbreviate versus. It’s best to use simply “vs”, as in “England vs America”.

Now days

People just don’t know how to speak properly nowadays.

One fowl swoop

The phrase “one fell swoop” seems to originate from Shakespeare, where, in Macbeth, MacDuff asks if all his family members have been killed by a kite (hunting bird—representing their killer) “at one fell swoop”.

Obviously swooping is the action of a bird, and a bird is a fowl; but “fell” is an old word meaning ‘fierce, savage, cruel’ etc.

Chomping at the bit

The original phrase is “champing at the bit”. Champ is an old verb meaning to chew or bite, and it has gradually been replaced by chomp, which has a similar meaning. So this may be the least offensive error—or not even considered an error by many. Still, it sounds silly to me, having been brought up on “champing”.

Legacy Comments

peterw — September 22, 2013

Here’s one I really dislike:

Safety deposit box

It’s actually a **safe** deposit box. Perhaps the error stems from it sounding like “safety posit” box.

Another one I see journalists getting wrong is where they describe criminals as being “hold up”, while they are really “holed up”, like a rabbit in a hole.

Ralph Mason — September 24, 2013

Nice ones, Peter. I could well have added those to my own list.

Angry — June 16, 2014

Nice list. I get the feeling that people who speak some of these phrases have never bothered to write them down.

Bernadette — October 12, 2014

I once heard someone in front of me in a queue ask for black refuge sacks. Wonder what they’d look like? If one is unsure ... one could refuse to ask for refuse sacks when rubbish bags would do.

Ralph Mason — October 13, 2014

@Bernadette Haha, quite so. Perhaps in asking for a black refuge sack they were looking for somewhere dark to hide?

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