to think someone should know doggy dog makes no sense?

[Juells]

Heard someone (on TV) using this yesterday. "It's a doggy dog world". Why do people think this means anything?

Later (think it was on Antiques Road Trip) someone said they were thinking of changing tact.

Am loving this thread - especially "belgian whistles", "parcel parcel", and "escape goat".

For a long time, I thought that the word was "anacronym" - I didn't realise that people were saying "an acronym". I actually used to describe it as "an anacronym" (and still have to have a quick double-think, even now).

I would still say 'dull as ditch water', I've never heard 'dish water'.

I saw defiantly instead of definitely in a thread I was reading earlier. It made me wonder what someone does if they actually need to use the word defiantly in its correct context?

I remember watching Minder and Arthur Daly used to say "the world's me lobster". I sometimes say it as a joke, but tell people I know it's oyster, it's just a funny quote

I have a lovely friend who thinks that she had "dolphin nose potatoes" once at a restaurant.

Not the same thing I know, but it reminds me of when I overheard a woman talking about her daughter's "tiny dolphin features".

'parcel parcel' makes me think of Major Major in, is it Catch-22?

I also think that fewer people read

Depends when you are comparing to.

Certainly not many people read 150 years ago...

I'm another one who is considering adopting 'Belgian whistles'

MealyPotatoes Yes, language evolves, but the sort of changes you're talking about happened in a time when the literacy rates were low and people relied on the spoken word more than on seeing things written down, and there were few written authorities like dictionaries that defined the standard spellings. That's not really the same as what's going on here.

Also, I think there's a case to be made for preserving the distinctions between similar-sounding words and the correct phrasing of particular idioms if there's no good reason to change them. Take "uninterested" and "disinterested", for example - they mean different things and I think that language loses something when they're used interchangeably. You're no longer able to make your meaning clear because you can't trust that your audience understands what definition you're using.

I've seen people write "Let's so this, as a pose to the other," instead of "as opposed to".

My absolute favourite was a colleague who, in an ill-judged attempt to build rapport with the young whippersnappers of today, was trying convey to a customer how something had gone wrong with their order. He emailed "It's all gone Peak Tongue" (instead of Pete Tong).

God knows what our customer thought.

The simile ‘as dull as ditch water’ is now more commonly said as ‘as dull as dish water.’

I've never heard the dish water variant.

Dave Gorman calls them cat phrases, which at least makes me smile about it.

"The world's your lobster" was used in The Glums, an old radio show. They also used "Neal-op-itan icecream" which my family always uses instead.

I worked with someone who routinely used the word irregardless.

HopeClearwater Wed 14-Aug-19 13:01:28
As a nation we do seem to be losing our ability to use language correctly

No, we never had it. It’s just that social media has made it easier to see people’s misunderstandings now.

I don't think so. you can see the decline in ages of people. All the people I went to school with/are a similar age to me can read, spell, construct sentences, and have a good grasp of grammar.

When you look at younger and younger people on facebook groups for instance, it's all appalling.

Some of the malapropisms are better than the originals though, @Juells.

One of my favourites, I think from a similar thread to this, was someone referring to 'ball balls' on their Christmas tree.

Oldraver Can you please tell me what your ebay seller meant by a Rabbit Bowel. I've said it out loud several times and I'm just not hearing anything other than rabbit bowel.

I agree a lot of these weirdly altered expressions come about because people don't read. However, I'm finding, as pp pointed out, that a lot of proof reading of novels seems really poor now, so reading isn't going to help in some cases.

I once stopped reading a book because the characters kept eating or cutting 'slithers' of cake - unnecessarily large amounts of cake as it happens - and the book was littered with 'slithers'.

Tbh the writer was no Jane Austen but you'd think a, half competent, proof reader would have pick it up.

Probably more malapropisms, but I have a friend who refers to acupuncture as 'aquapuncture', and my fil who refers to his ailments as 'glue coma, arthuritis and protrate cancer.
Many year ago, when they were a new invention, my h kept referring to his 'labtop' computer. When I said it was laptop and not labtop, he thought that labtop made more sense as he was using it in a scientific capacity.

What's off your own back supposed to be then?

Off your own bat?

I assumed it was a Peter Rabbit Bowl.

I’m sure a lot of theses are said deliberately. I say “the world is your lobster”- because it makes me laugh every time. Ditto “doggy dog world”

Be careful, OP. I started a similar thread a while ago and some responses were highly critical of me, for caring about other people’s use of language.

Go onto YouTube and type in Ken Lee

Or can someone post a link..... communication breakdown! Poor woman

I say 'muriel' instead of 'mural' a la Hilda Ogden sometimes, but younger people wouldn't recognise it now.

My DH said 'we have to get up and Adam' the other day.

Doesn't even make sense!