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Original poster

To have completely misunderstood the meaning of some sayings?

843 replies

KermitTheToad · 18/11/2025 20:53

I only found out today that the term Social Butterfly refers to someone who is outgoing and loves social events. I thought it meant you didn't like social events, as in you would fly away and avoid them. I also until recently thought that a Spendthrift is somebody who is frugal in their spending. I assumed that as thrifty meant not being wasteful, that Spendthrift meant being careful in what you spent.
YANBU..I see where you are coming from.
YABU.. You are a wally, go back to school!

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7
ToWhitToWhoo · 19/11/2025 00:23

honeylulu · 19/11/2025 00:15

I agree about bucolic, it sounds like a nasty stomach virus.

See also pulchritude. Sounds like something putrid and repulsive but means "beauty".

I also think emasculate sounds wrong. It sounds like someone is made super-masculine rather than less so.

I have noticed a lot of people using "fulsome" to mean genuine high praise but it actually means praise which is insincere.

As I child I didn't properly understand "many hands make light work". I envisaged lots of people reaching up and putting their hands on a light bulb and it lighting up.

I was also confused by "life is but a dream" in Row row row your boat. I thought it was Butterdream and decided that it must be like a butterfly.

I know someone who thought it was 'Life is down the drain' - the Pessimist's Anthem?

MO0N · 19/11/2025 00:23

Greenbeanmcgee · 18/11/2025 21:24

I know what it actually means but salubrious sounds like it should have the opposite meaning imo.

'Salubrious' is one of those words which I feel is 'onomatopoeically' very different to it's real meaning.

ToWhitToWhoo · 19/11/2025 00:21

I met someone who was terribly confused by the hymn lines 'O my spirit longs and faints/ For the converse of Thy saints.' She came from a mathematical family and understood 'converse' in its mathematical sense (roughly 'the opposite') and she couldn't understand how such a sentiment got into a hymn!

ec5881 · 19/11/2025 00:20

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Lawyers have to show their transcripts for jobs in the early years. Guess it’s time for an apology?

SoInLuv · 19/11/2025 00:19

Bigearringsbigsmile · 18/11/2025 21:14

You were correct, not your friend

Show quote history

It actually means both. So both the PP and her friend were correct.

MO0N · 19/11/2025 00:17

pumpkinscake · 19/11/2025 00:16

He was wasteful

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and a golden boy- because he was forgiven all his misdeeds, ie he got away with it all!

pumpkinscake · 19/11/2025 00:16

SelfRaisingFlour · 18/11/2025 21:03

I didn't know that "prodigal son" meant he was wasteful not a golden boy.

He was wasteful

fatphalange · 19/11/2025 00:16

When younger I made my mate a birthday card with ‘fair weather friend’ written on the front. Thinking that meant the term represented a friend who brings sunshine to your life, happy, warm vibes. When really I was unwittingly and very passive-aggressively slagging her off 😬

honeylulu · 19/11/2025 00:15

I agree about bucolic, it sounds like a nasty stomach virus.

See also pulchritude. Sounds like something putrid and repulsive but means "beauty".

I also think emasculate sounds wrong. It sounds like someone is made super-masculine rather than less so.

I have noticed a lot of people using "fulsome" to mean genuine high praise but it actually means praise which is insincere.

As I child I didn't properly understand "many hands make light work". I envisaged lots of people reaching up and putting their hands on a light bulb and it lighting up.

I was also confused by "life is but a dream" in Row row row your boat. I thought it was Butterdream and decided that it must be like a butterfly.

MO0N · 19/11/2025 00:15

I have noticed that 'begging the question' is almost never used correctly.

ToWhitToWhoo · 19/11/2025 00:14

As a child, I was puzzled by the 'No Waiting' signs that appeared by roads in London. They meant, 'No stopping even for a short time to wait for someone' ; but I thought that the signs were really naughty and telling people that they shouldn't be patient and wait for things!

I knew someone who was really puzzled by the story of Abraham Lincoln writing the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope. Surely the back of an envelope was the normal place to write an address (this was when we only had snailmail), so why was it treated as special that he did so?

MO0N · 19/11/2025 00:12

LadyCathdeBourgh · 18/11/2025 20:59

I am the same with spendthrift. I also thought svelte meant fat/curvy.

Spendthrift is understandable I think.

JustNotBlueberries · 19/11/2025 00:04

soupyspoon · 18/11/2025 21:14

No it doesnt. It means a dark haired man.

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I thought it meant someone tanned or rugged looking as in not pale and pasty.

GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut · 19/11/2025 00:03

Belshels · 18/11/2025 23:42

Swings and roundabouts always found a strange one, also a catch 22 situation??

Swings and roundabouts / six of one half a dozen of the other / same difference.

They're different but ultimately the same.

Catch 22 is when the thing you're trying to do is the thing that stops you doing it.

Like not being able to get a loan because you have no credit history.

LadyGAgain · 18/11/2025 23:59

Lucked out literally means the opposite to how it sounds (to me).

MysteriousInspector · 18/11/2025 23:53

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]

Rubberducky678 · 18/11/2025 23:52

Oh I have a FANTASTIC one for this. Forgive me but spirituality had never been my thing.
I was in my early 20’s when I realised a Clairvoyant wasn’t a person. I just thought she was a really famous psychic called Claire Voyant. Like Derek Acorah. I still laugh about it.

Charlize43 · 18/11/2025 23:52

Dontlletmedownbruce · 18/11/2025 23:48

@CaveMum you can take the horse to the water but you can't make it drink..

you can take the whore to culture but you can't make her think...
(Dorothy Parker)

Fleur405 · 18/11/2025 23:48

Belshels · 18/11/2025 23:42

Swings and roundabouts always found a strange one, also a catch 22 situation??

Catch-22 I think comes from the novel by Joseph Heller - as in I think he coined the phrase rather than used an existing one.

I found the novel pretty impossible to understand (and I’m quite good at reading as I’m a lawyer …who also had to produce my full university transcripts to get my training contract!)

Dontlletmedownbruce · 18/11/2025 23:48

@CaveMum you can take the horse to the water but you can't make it drink..

Boiledbeetle · 18/11/2025 23:46

mynameisthebestone · 18/11/2025 22:30

For years I thought inflammable was the opposite of flammable. I would buy eg children's dressing-up clothes marked inflammable because I thought that was a good thing!

To be fair I think that one has been confusing people for a couple of hundred years!

largeredformeplease · 18/11/2025 23:45

78e22387FFGH · 18/11/2025 21:46

I always thought the protagonist in a film was the baddie, sounds like it should be, until I realised that was the antagonist (which makes more sense - pro and anti)

Same.

I also still struggle a bit with protagonists being called “hero”, simply because they are the main character.

i know that the meaning of hero is nothing like superhero, but I still finding it jarring to hear of some weedy, nondescript protagonist being described as “our hero”.

Dontlletmedownbruce · 18/11/2025 23:42

I actually thought apes had been trained to bear arms as a child. Gorilla warfare. When I think of some of the daft things that have happened in the world this isn't actually as bonkers

Charlize43 · 18/11/2025 23:42

Clearly you are not one who knows how many beans make five...

Belshels · 18/11/2025 23:42

Swings and roundabouts always found a strange one, also a catch 22 situation??