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

[LaFlambeau]

When the correct expression is 'toeing the line'?

Oh that's interesting.

You know when you flick through a book without turning pages, I thought that that was riffling.

I've seen 'stand in joke' posted a few times and it's made me chuckle

a bit different but a word that is used wrongly so ubiquitously it is now right, is 'hopefully'
As in 'I will be on the 5 o clock train, hopefully' Well that means you will be boarding the 5 oclock train with your soul full of hope, when what you mean is 'I hope I will be on the 5 o' clock train'

I am a graduate and teacher of English and I didn't know about staunch / stanch or rifle / riffle. This thread is an education!

Oh my crisis of confidence was entirely reasonable then. :)

Yes I think that rifle is looking through stuff with intent (to steal?).

My personal favourite was an estate agent describing a flat as an ideal 'Pierre du Terre' with an 'on suit'. I had to read that one out loud to understand what they were on about.

I also don't understand some people's need to use reflexive pronouns all over the shop but that's an entirely new thread

lastnight the vast majority of my clients are estate agents, and I produce their brochures. I've seen some corkers, but pierre du terre is the best thing i've seen!

I will keep an eye out this week for any examples worthy of a mention!

Normally I do try not to read the bilge stuff they write, as it just upsets me mostly.

Estate Agents are the worst offenders of the reflexive pronouns.

I do inhabit the hell of yourself, myself etc.. it grates. Every. Time.

Oh I just love the 'shabby sheik' furniture

And agree with a PP who suggested that much of this is to do with people reading less.

Saw these examples the other day (on Buzzfeed )

In today's Sunday Times property section there is a floor plan featured which clearly shows an 'Anti Room'.

A trend I've noticed with estate agents lately is the use of 'grandiose'', e.g. 'A grandiose hallway lead

Aargh, that post was all over the place!

I note your chester draws and add walldrobe

wall-drobe, as in it stands against a wall

these items are always coming up on my local freecycle

But reading will not necessarily assist in understanding the term 'shabby sheik'...

Reading won't necessarily help, yes I agree. Especially when publishers are skimping on proof-reading, and publishing books which are filled with errors.
For instance, using the word lightening when they meant lightning. Not much difference in spelling but a world away in meaning.

This is all very interesting, can anyone recommend a book on the origin of common phrases?

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

diddl is correct; the rifle through someone's belongings implies a search with intent and "riffle" is to flick through, say, book. Easy to see why the two are confused.

"Grandiose" has suffered the same fate as "fulsome", the less well-read infer meaning from the first syllable, and don't see the word applied in a whole sentence. I'm not sneering at those who read less; it's just a fact that so many more nuanced phrases convey their meaning in whole sentences/paragraphs/narratives, that aren't encountered in spoken discourse.

pullet suprise!

OMG I'm shaking with laughter.

Had to say it out loud to get it!

Pullet Surprise!

Mute point leads me to Joey from Friends stating that a point is "moo" because a cow has no opinion.
Oh I love that, and I think it's Rachel who says 'is it just me, or did that actually make sense'
I remember reading a post (not on MN) about someone whose house was in a Cully Sack.

Ooh, you've just reminded me, Dubjackeen. At school, another girl told me about her mum, first generation Polish-after-the-war, who would throw herself down on the sofa after a knackering day, saying: "Oh, cul-de-sac!"

She really did think it was an expression of exhaustion.

I had to explain to a friend that the big windmilly things are called 'turbines' and not "turn-bines" although much like another friend who is insistent that the word 'terminus' is actually pronounced "Turn-I-Must" as its logical innit?

Skimmed thread... has 'effect' vs 'affect' already made the list? That one comes up a lot at work. And s vs c words, e.g. advise/advice. Noun vs verb. Except no one I work with seems to know what nouns or verbs are...

What do you all do when you're confronted with these in a work email or similar and need to use the word/phrase already misused in the email thread? Do you a) use the correct form and risk sounding like you're correcting someone (not a good idea with some of my senior managers who take things personally and have no sense of humour), or b) use the same incorrect form previously used, and gently rock away under your desk in a traumatised fashion for a while, or c) find a completely way of saying whatever it is, no matter how convoluted?

That has reminded me of accept/except.

Does anyone remember signs "no dogs allowed guide dogs excepted/accepted"?

I thought it was excepted as they were not included in the "no dogs allowed"

I thought it was raw plugs as ive only heard it.