To wonder what mental image people have for 'towing the line'...

[LaFlambeau]

When the correct expression is 'toeing the line'?

RustyBear - am reading it in book form (Arrow edition).

I am aware that some of these expressions evolve over time but that doesn't mean I have to like it I don't think I could ever bring myself to use disinterested to mean anything other than neutral, for example.

Rustybear, a useful test for acceptability of certain phrases would be: does Eton/ Harrow, etc. etc. encourage their students to write/speak in this manner?

I am no fan of the private education system, or supporter of the immutable nature of language, but I do know what makes someone sound/read like a thicko.

This really was meant to be about mental images constructed to make sense of misunderstood expressions!

I absolutely love...

all terrier motive

A friend of mine has a rather unfriendly little terrier and I am deeply suspicious of his motives, so that one does it for me

As an aside, MN really needs a [Brian Sewell face]

A poster on here a few months ago used "dire rear" instead of "diarrhea".

Now there's a mental image.

The other misuse of route for root is when people say they had a route through my stuff to find the keys.

It's root. Pigs root for truffles.

Apologies to the caravan owner in question but I did stop myself from posting on that thread.

I remember meeting a young man, also a patient on the ward when my DC was in hospital, who commented that a lot of children had been admitted with "sickness and verbal diarrhoea."

What about "I am waiting with baited breath" - someone I know who is an English teacher used that recently, arrgh

Possibly the teacher had eaten Stilton and was waiting by a mousehole a la Tom and Jerry.

I am an English teacher, and am shocked but not surprised.

Me too NoddyCar. This thread needs to be preserved against the day the language dies, so all the correct usages can be retained.

I was going for another think coming but someone beat me. I suspect another 'thing' coming is on the verge of acceptance in the US. :(

I also really dislike 'then' being used for 'than' which is another pronunciation-driven piece of madness.

Root through made me think of rifle through stuff.

Sure I've heard "riffle" through!

How about a modem of respect??

That's one I've heard!

Aargh, just thought of one, full proof for fool-proof! Even seen online dictionaries trying to justify full proof on spurious mathematical grounds. Just feck off.

modem of respect :)

Diddl I very nearly used rifle in my post and then had a crisis of confidence :)

Which reminds me of a lovely book my dad had in the 1950s about passing exams. The first tip was:
If you don't know how to spell or use a word then choose another word. If you can't spell assistance use help etc.

I am much amused by the baited breath image :)

I'm going out on a limb here, but so much of this is about people not reading so widely any more. They hear it and construct an ad hoc spelling.

< Don't get me started on the mis-use of ad hoc>

A modicum of respect. It's verification by proximity: well, yeah, it kinda sounds like, sort of, like.

I know it's wasn't you, echt, just autocorrect :)

Been instead of being. Usually from people who are perfectly capable of writing doing, seeing etc, so why on earth?

A lot of people say their "conscious is clear" when I hope they mean conscience. Or possibly they are just telling me there isn't much going on in their heads?

But then it also leads to saying/writing something that doesn't make sense!

I have twice had different observers leave me written advice to 'be weary of using the same technique too often'.

One had no idea why it was wrong, the other one laughed and said, well you must be weary of using it by now' - which was at least, amusing.

But the one that gets my goat every time is the word nucular... it is nuclear - read it, just read it....

Apologies to the caravan owner in question but I did stop myself from posting on that thread

I didn't read that thread but I did vaguely wonder whether unauthorised routing in a caravan might be caravan-owner speak for taking the caravan away.

The first tip was:
If you don't know how to spell or use a word then choose another word. If you can't spell assistance use help etc

That is very good advice. Unless you are attempting to write a book or a poem where the effect is important or a technical piece which requires specific language it's unlikely substituting "help" for "assistance" will alter the meaning.

There is an advert on where they say "keep your health in check" - why? Is it good to restrict your health?

May I add people who use defiantly when they mean definitely?

I always picture them stamping their feet like toddlers when they're doing whatever it is.

Now I thought to rifle meant to go through someone's belongings stealthily and haphazardly looking for something, but that riffle meant to go through a book casually looking for something.

But I have just looked it up and both actions should be riffle. Live and learn! That and the Chaucer "Cheap at half the price" one have been an education today.

< Puts dunces hat on and sits in the corner >

I know an English teacher who once wrote on a pupil's work that his errors were "unexceptable"