“Thrown under a bus”

[backinthebox]

Aargh! As a phrase it sets my teeth on edge and it’s being used everywhere about everything atm. By my reckoning having done a quick search here, about 99.99% of the country have been thrown under a bus recently. Just stop it! No one has actually been thrown under an actual bus. Think of some different words to use.

So...

Shaking and fumming, @StillCoughingandLaughing

... 'sets my teeth on edge' is another annoy-ism but, some people like to use it.

Why do people keep starting these stupid threads about the way other people speak, use language?

I see 'drink the kool-aid' used quite a lot on MN and I wonder if the people using it know that it refers to a massacre where nearly a thousand cult members, including children, died after drinking poisoned Kool-Aid.

Perhaps people are getting fed up with a lot of things and phrases seem to be one of them. A few I’ve noticed being said time and again -
Let me be clear
Novel Virus
For the avoidance of doubt
I totally understand
I make no apologies
Unprecedented times
etc etc etc

The phrases I really really don't like are "we've had our ups and downs" because it's always used to describe an absolute car crash of a relationship, and "to each their own" because it's always bunged on to a sanctimonious, judgemental, moralistic post that inevitably targets something with no moral value (Christmas Eve boxes, for example) so the poster can pretend they're not doing exactly what they're doing.

I would be interested to know what phrases you use, which would actual cover all your supposed grievances ,

'Spitting feathers' is one that annoys me, because Mumsnetters seem to use it to mean 'very angry' when it actually means 'very thirsty'.

@FurrySlipperBoots

'Spitting feathers' is one that annoys me, because Mumsnetters seem to use it to mean 'very angry' when it actually means 'very thirsty'.

Oh does it? I did not know that, but actually it makes far more sense!

I was nearly hit by a tram once. Never a bus though.

@EmilySpinach

I see 'drink the kool-aid' used quite a lot on MN and I wonder if the people using it know that it refers to a massacre where nearly a thousand cult members, including children, died after drinking poisoned Kool-Aid.

People use death imagery all the time in common speech. "I could have killed him", "I could murder a burger" "I could have died of embarrassment". Then there's all the imagery that derives from WW 1 - "undermined," "over the top", etc - which reference a conflict in which 17 million people died. Or how about bombing? 'Go nuclear', 'that bombed'. At least 200,000 people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Strangely, everyone seems to understand that these are metaphors and no disrespect to the victims of war and murder is intended but, every so often, a few sanctimonious posters decide to get offended by Kool-Aid. Yawn.

www.lexico.com/definition/spit_feathers
It means both. Never heard of it before, thanks :)

"Livid" is another one almost everybody (not just mumsnetters) gets wrong. It means a bluish grey colour, but the phrase "livid with rage" got everybody confused and now "livid" is understood to mean "really cross".
Same with "travesty", which means "burlesque parody", but the phrase "travesty of justice" got English speakers thinking that travesty means something outrageously unjust or unfair.

@FurrySlipperBoots

'Spitting feathers' is one that annoys me, because Mumsnetters seem to use it to mean 'very angry' when it actually means 'very thirsty'.

It can mean either.

@EmilySpinach

I see 'drink the kool-aid' used quite a lot on MN and I wonder if the people using it know that it refers to a massacre where nearly a thousand cult members, including children, died after drinking poisoned Kool-Aid.

Oh please .. yes some of us are aware of this so you can get down off your horse

Oh and it wasn’t Kool-aid it was actually Flavor-aid they drank ..

'Suck it and see' is my least favourite. I don't see it often here though, everyone is too busy 'fuming' about other things.

I was in a bus crash once..

Have your biscuit back, @MissLucyEyelesbarrow. Broad hyperbole is not the same as a reference to a specific incident. It would be more comparable to say that a person who was angry had 'gone totally Columbine', or that a violent person had 'done a Dunblane'. Can you see the difference between the phrase 'train wreck' and saying something like 'it's all gone a bit Potters Bar'?

I don't think it's sanctimonious to think that all of those examples would be pretty crass. I'm not aware of any other idioms in common use which are directly taken from an individual atrocity or disaster in recent history. I'll be happy to be corrected.

I was in a bus crash once well you cant leave it there @CoconutLassi! It will set my teeth on edge if you do - tell us what happened or I may well literally go over the top and be livid

had better calm down and drink the kool-aid/flavor-aid/lucozade I think

Just going to point out, there was a story last year about a runner actually throwing someone under a bus.

@FurrySlipperBoots

'Spitting feathers' is one that annoys me, because Mumsnetters seem to use it to mean 'very angry' when it actually means 'very thirsty'.

It means you are so angry that you have literally bitten the head off a chicken.

No, imagine how dry your mouth would be if it was full of feathers. That’s why it’s spitting feathers.

Somewhere along the line I think it’s been confused with “madder than a wet hen”, which means very cross.

@bloggersblog oh god, I think I hyped it a bit too much. It was a late night bus back from uni, the driver blatantly drove into a car on his route, nothing major though. Cue understandably angry driver and bus driver attempted to make me and the only other passenger say it was the drivers fault, it wasn't. Needless to say, I always prayed not to have that driver on my unilink rides over the next three years!

I had a similar phase of being annoyed by 'out of the window' as in, 'our marriage went out of the window' 'common sense went out the window' etc.

It means you are so angry that you have literally bitten the head off a chicken.

You made that up.

Funnily enough I always picture a fox which has just missed the chicken and got a a mouthful of feathers. I don't think it comes from that though. Maybe we both read the same Ladybird book and can remember the fox picture.

I'm fairly certain it only ever meant 'thirsty' until recently though.