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[-] Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org 98 points 1 year ago

If you're up for something, or down for something, it means the same thing.

If you fill in a form or fill out a form, it means the same thing.

English is fucked.

[-] Chriszz@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

Think about filling in a form, though. Filling in a form—“to fill” is unambiguous. In/out isn’t even necessary when you think about it. “I’m going to fill a form” means the same thing too.

[-] Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 year ago

I feel like you're technically correct, but saying "fill a form" just sounds weird to a native English speaker.

[-] s1ndr0m3@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

The alarm went off, so I turned it off.

[-] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

Don't forget you might already be in the right place and don't need to go up or down. Then you can say you're "there for something"

[-] ezures@lemmy.wtf 10 points 1 year ago

Also try this inflammable table with flammable chairs.

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 2 points 1 year ago

I hate this one, it confuses Dutch people from time to time, so they think “inflammable” means “fire resistant”.

Extra scary when there's only an English-language warning on this

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 57 points 1 year ago

I guess fat chance is said sarcastically.

[-] seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 28 points 1 year ago

I've never not heard it said sarcastically.

[-] Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 year ago

There are words and phrases in English that get used sarcastically so often they lose their original meaning. There is a word for this and I swear I've seen a whole list somewhere but my google fu is weak today.

[-] CubbyTustard@reddthat.com 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

related but different there's the "euphemism treadmill" where scientific terms get turned into slurs over time; lame, retarded, sped etc.

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 year ago

Schizo and psycho are a bit different, because they involve shortening the words.

[-] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago
[-] Firefly7@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No - semantic satiation is when you read or hear a word so much in a short timeframe that it stops feeling like a real word, and briefly feels like just a jumble of letters/sounds.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 year ago

I hate semantic satiation. It happens all the time while programming for me. I'll have a variable name with some common word and, after typing it a few times my brain just stops recognizing it as a real word. This sometimes sends me into etymology dives to figure out why the word "jump" (or whatever) looks so strange.

[-] hemmes@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Row•ads, that is a freaky word

[-] GarytheSnail@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

There's a fat chance you're gonna be eating those words.

[-] PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Now, I expect to be down voted.

I don't care, but I'm going to piss a lot of people off.

I say "I could care less".

That's sarcasm. It's what my nineties, heroin chic, grunge music adolescence gave me.

I could care less. It would just require that I make an effort. That's not caring less. That's caring about something.

It's like how the biggest homophobes always seem to be closeted. They care too much.

[-] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

You think "could care less" is actually legit? Fat chance!

[-] confluence@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

You can make profit on and profit off

[-] andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun 7 points 1 year ago

I could build on your point or build off of it.

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

But if you’re hardly working, you’re not working hard.

[-] EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Alarms can go off and be turned off

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 20 points 1 year ago

Yup. And one means it via sarcasm.

[-] Synthead@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Yeah, with this argument, "excellent" and "terrible" means the same thing.

[-] darcy@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago

one is just said sarcastically

[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 year ago

Fun fact: awful and awesome used to be synonyms

[-] moistclump@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Antiautonyms! https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/antiauto.html

Or contronyms. I don’t funny understand the delineation between the two.

[-] Cableferret@lemmy.tf 4 points 1 year ago

I've always loved Mace Windu telling someone "your chances come in two sizes: slim and fat" in an old Star Wars Novell called Shatterpoint.

[-] Suspicious@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 year ago

Fat chance is a sarcastic phrase, so they don't actually have the same literal meaning

[-] TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago
this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
287 points (96.1% liked)

Showerthoughts

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