To have completely misunderstood the meaning of some sayings?

Also one of my favourites i read recently on here, where they thought a petard, as in "hoist by your own petard", was a sort of leotard and it was giving you a wedgie 😂

I don’t think this is right. I think it’s the opposite: the cottage looks small from the outside but that’s deceptive - it’s actually spacious. So deceptively small = larger than it first seems.

Otherwise there’s no deception.

Since being in primary school I thought pontious meant arrogant/obnoxious and the Biblical Pontious Pilate was an arrogant man called Pilate. I was so shocked to discover in my early 20s, after using pontious as an adjective for years that it was his name. I think I was getting it confused with pretentious 😳

I thought the saying "when the going gets tough the tough get going" meant when things are hard the so-called tough scarper. Actually it means they spring into action.

And "a friend in need is a friend indeed" I thought was a kind of sarcastically saying when someone needs something from you they act like a really good friend. Really it means if someone's your friend in your hour of need they're a true friend.

In an English Literature degree exam, there was a question on the “status quo” being upset in King Lear. I thought the term meant a person of the highest status. Had done for years. So I answered the exam question on that basis. Wrote about it for an hour.

My wild misunderstanding pulled my whole exam mark down to 40, which was the pass mark. Luckily it was in my first year, so it didn’t count towards my degree. I was asked about that incongruous exam grade in many job interviews for many years where I had to disclose my full degree transcript. Nearly cost me a career. So embarrassing but very amusing.

No, the “in need” refers to you. A friend who is still your friend when you are in need is a good friend. It’s the opposite of a fair weather friend.

Really?? I don't buy that. I will happily recant if I find such a word in a dictionary.

You’re right about a ‘spendthrift’ being someone who’s frugal. Love that you thought that about a ‘social butterfly’. My friend’s son thought ‘peace and quiet’ was ‘a piece of quiet’.

Suspend belief vs suspend disbelief

If I'm watching a film I'm suspending disbelief aren't I? - I'm suspending my critical thinking [which tells me these things aren't true] in order to temporarily buy into and enjoy the fiction I'm being shown.

But I've always had a niggling thought that this could also be described as suspending belief. In one sense I'm temporarily suspending my beliefs, or my belief system, in order to enjoy the fiction.

Explained badly, but I hope you get what I mean. 😃

Deceptively large = larger than it first seemed. E.g this cottage is deceptively large...it's much more spacious than it looks from outside.

Deceptively small = smaller than you'd think. E.g. 'this handbag can hardly fit anything in it, it's deceptively small!'

Heavy plant crossing. I was flummoxed by that one for years. Always thought of triffids when I was a kid. Knew it couldn't be that but it was years into adulthood before I knew for sure what it meant. (probably when Google was invented so I could look it up without embarrassing myself by asking an acutal human).

A leotard giving you a wedgie 😂

It actually is another one from the Bible - when Queen Esther's cousin Mordecai had an enemy who made a huge stake to hang him on, and ended up being hung on it himself

Hoist by your own petard is pretty common, particularly with comedians. It's from Hamlet.

I converted to Law. The big City firms all ask for transcripts.

Edited to add that it’s only requested for the first few years. For example for a training contract or newly qualified roles. It soon defers to just your overall degree grade.

Sorry if someone's already asked I don't want to lose my place in the thread while I finish reading, but why did he coin it a 'catch 22' do you know? Rather than any other random combination of words and numbers! I'd love to know if there's more to it than that. Am I being dumb though now 😄

No, a friend in need, is a friend indeed because they'll do anything for you because you're going to help them, so they are acting 'like a good friend' because they want something out of you.

Tall, Dark and Handsome. I always pictured that to mean a white man and that the "dark" was in reference to features such as black/brown hair or brown eyes. A friend told me that the dark was in reference to skin colour and that it basically meant a person of colour.

Before anyone comments that it shows my bias, I am a person of colour!

I thought that about spendthrift too. It still doesn't make any sense to me. How can that be anything to do with being thrifty

Suspend belief vs suspend disbelief

If I'm watching a film I'm suspending disbelief aren't I? - I'm suspending my critical thinking [which tells me these things aren't true] in order to temporarily buy into and enjoy the fiction I'm being shown.

But I've always had a niggling thought that this could also be described as suspending belief. In one sense I'm temporarily suspending my beliefs, or my belief system, in order to enjoy the fiction.

Explained badly, but I hope you get what I mean. 😃

My whole life people have tried to explain to me the meaning of the expression 'that begs the question' and no matter how many times they do I simply cannot process its meaning.

Google tells me that the term Catch 22 originated from the 1961 novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, describing a military rule where a pilot could be grounded for being insane, but any pilot who requested to be grounded [because pf the danger] was proving they were sane and therefore had to continue flying.

edit: [my addition]