Common sayings which don't make sense

[nevernotstruggling]

Dd1 (11) has just said 'mummy you know how you don't like it when people say ATM machine??? Because the M is for machine?? Well what about baby chick? Chick is the baby version of chicken so you are just saying oh look a baby baby!'

She's right. Any more like this?

The one that irritates me makes total sense in its correct form, but none in the mangled form in which it’s often reproduced. ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating’ — you need to try something for yourself to judge its value, not rely on theory or appearances. Perfectly comprehensible and true. ‘The proof is in the pudding’ — what do the people who say this with an air of great profundity even think it means?

@AlfonsoTheMango

Young girl.

By definition, a girl is young. It is always used to describe a young woman.

And I've never heard anyone described as a "young boy".

There are young girls and older girls. And young boy is used all the time.

@AlfonsoTheMango

Young girl.

By definition, a girl is young. It is always used to describe a young woman.

And I've never heard anyone described as a "young boy".

huh?

of course people say young boy.

and "girl" or "boy" don't necessarily refer to someone young, in fact it might not even refer to a human!
I've heard many times dogs and cars being referred to as old girl/old boy.

I get that you don't like the phrase.

"money is the root of all evil"
🙄
it's a misquote and doesn't make sense at all. of course you need money for all sort of things!

the original verse is: "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil"
(1 Timothy 6:10), which means that greed is wrong.
such a difference

‘Something chronic’
Chronic relates to time, not severity

Not quite the same but ‘dice’ is a plural…

PAT testing (portable appliance testing testing )

Hell for leather - wtf does that even mean?

Reversing back. You can't exactly reverse forwards, can you?!

@millenialblush

Hell for leather - wtf does that even mean?

🤣🤣

never heard that, but I shall start using it immediately

First day of the rest of your life - er, that's every day then!

It'll be in the last place you look - well, I'm not going to keep looking after I've found it, am I?

Revert back - it makes me so angry! To revert is to go back, so if you revert back you are going forward!

Any double negative for that matter!

a bit of trivia:

in Hungary we call a car key "slussz kulcs".
kulcs means key in Hungarian
slussz is the misused form of the German word Schlüssel, also meaning key

so basically we call it a "key key"🤔😁

'Very unique' annoys me, something is either unique or it's not.

I can add HIV virus

and Soweto township.

There are several songs which sing about drinking ‘french champagne’

What other sort of champagne is there?!

"At this moment in time". What else is a moment but a unit of time?

"You can't judge a book by its cover."

Oh yes you can these days.

"One of the only". If it's the only it can't be one of several or many.

New and improved... if it's improved it can't be new, it already existed.

two twins.

If you need to clarify how many of the set of twins you are talking about then one twin or both twins. Otherwise, if you are talking about X and Y and their two twins, the two is a tautology.

@FourTurnings

Personally speaking - there’s no other way to speak!!

You can speak on behalf of someone else or an organisation...

Dd1 is very giggly about all these thank you

@AlfonsoTheMango

Young girl.

By definition, a girl is young. It is always used to describe a young woman.

And I've never heard anyone described as a "young boy".

Hmmm.... a girl is anything from birth to 18. Bit broad, no?

MOT meaning the test a car has each year for roadworthiness.
MOT stands for Ministry of Transport.
so, "My car needs an MOT" is missing the word test

"a new beginning"

well, can it ever be an old beginning?