Phrases which make no sense

[WhereTheFuck]

It has just occurred to me that the phrase 'one in one out' (like when you go to a club and it's really busy) doesn't make sense. It should be 'one out one in' because you don't get to go in until someone comes out.
For some reason this is now really annoying me! Does anyone else have examples of everyday phrases that actually make no sense when you think about them?

[Amdone123]

Beat me to it !!!

[maryandhersheep]

Learn something new everyday! (That's a response to the Raze to the ground not a phrase that doesn't make sense!)

[crabb]

@ssd @amDone123, it’s sarcastic! If you try to be kind, it’s likely to turn around and bite you in the bum. Or as a friend of mine used to say in a similar vein (never heard anyone else use this phrase!) - the more you try hard, the better you get worse off

[sashh]

Run out of comes from unwinding rope, the rope would be run out through your hands.

It's then applied to other things.

A bit like 'full fat coke' which doesn't actually have an fat in it, it's a term applied meaning 'not the diet stuff'.

[SarahAndQuack]

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

'Aren't I?' probably originated from 'are not I?'

But it would be 'am not I' to be grammatically regular, so that doesn't help.

I quite like 'gilding the lily' but yes, when you think about it it is a weird image.

[Amdone123]

@crabb, oh I never knew that! That makes sense thanks.
I think my nan used to say something like not bothering trouble til it bothers you. Similar I suppose.

[Darceyhemingway]

@OliverBabish when I see that it makes me so annoyed I hate hate hate that saying!!!

I could care less. Hate it. Makes no sense!

[CaptainMyCaptain]

@NotRainingToday

Spending money like water.
WTF?
My in laws say it all the time and just look confused if I say you can't spend water.

Spending money 'as if it was' water - free and plentiful.

[CaptainMyCaptain]

@HarebrightCedarmoon

"Winter of discontent" to most people old enough to renember would mean the winter of 1978 - 1979 where there were a lot of industrial disputes, strikes and severe winter weather. The Shakespeare was used for a newspaper headline which stuck.

Might yet be used again for 2021-22.

It wasn't appropriate, though, because it wasn't about actual winter.

[CaptainMyCaptain]

I hear what your saying (when you are brushing what I say aside)

It's the sort of thing you are told to say on counselling courses (at least the one day type teachers go on) to show you have listened to the other person's point even if you disagree.

[HarebrightCedarmoon]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent

It started in autumn and went on throughout winter.

[HarebrightCedarmoon]

As someone who has suffered from depression, "in a bad place" is a perfect and not at all trite description as far as I'm concerned.

[SarahAndQuack]

@CaptainMyCaptain, I don't get why it's inappropriate?

It's a metaphor about bad times that someone applied to a literal bad time.

[SarahAndQuack]

@HarebrightCedarmoon

As someone who has suffered from depression, "in a bad place" is a perfect and not at all trite description as far as I'm concerned.

YY, I like 'in a bad place' (well, not 'like,' perhaps, but it resonates).

[Gncq]

MolyHolyGuacamole
Argh the "friend in need is a friend indeed" thing took me half my life to understand! I too thought it was the friend who was in need....

Another one I couldn't ever quite understand was "there's no love lost between them" which I always used to think it meant the two people were really really close friends, because none of the love between them has got lost!
Wrong.

[Gncq]

^ "no love lost between them" means you imagine all the love going around in the world and none of it has accidentally found itself in between these two people!

[Anontwentyone]

@wizzler

I have a Spanish friend who couldn't understand the English phrase "run out (eg of bread) and I think she has a point

That's hilarious and yes I'd love an explanation why we say "run out of xyz"

[HarebrightCedarmoon]

"No love lost between them" means that you are comparing them to friends or lovers who fall out, there may be love lost between them. If people don't like each other then there is no love to potentially lose.

[HarebrightCedarmoon]

The "run out" thing reminds me of the Monty Python explanation of the rules of cricket:

"You have two sides, one out in the field and one in

Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.

"When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out^.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.

There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

Capisce?

[HarebrightCedarmoon]

Or possibly The Two Ronnies.

[Thecurtainsofdestiny]

@HereForThis

Yes! "Amn't I" does make sense!

Aren't I still doesn't...

[TaraR2020]

@sashh yes, but why wouldn't it melt? Surely the phrase implies that innocence is cold which just doesn't make sense!

[SarahAndQuack]

[quote TaraR2020]@sashh yes, but why wouldn't it melt? Surely the phrase implies that innocence is cold which just doesn't make sense![/quote]
I don't know if this is the actual reason, but in medieval/early modern times, heat was associated with all sorts of non-innocent behaviour, especially in women (that's why you say a bitch is in heat).

So maybe innocence was thought to be cold!

Personally I've always imagined it to mean someone who keeps themselves so primly aloof that the natural laws of the universe don't even touch them - so even butter wouldn't sully their mouth by melting.

[NigellaSeed]

@ssd

I dont get 'no good deed goes unpunished '

Its like you get penalised if you are a good person??

Yes I don't know that one either

[MrsPelligrinoPetrichor]

So maybe innocence was thought to be cold!

It's not referring to innocence, it's describing someone so cool, calm and collected that even butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.