To have completely misunderstood the meaning of some sayings?

[KermitTheToad]

I only found out today that the term Social Butterfly refers to someone who is outgoing and loves social events. I thought it meant you didn't like social events, as in you would fly away and avoid them. I also until recently thought that a Spendthrift is somebody who is frugal in their spending. I assumed that as thrifty meant not being wasteful, that Spendthrift meant being careful in what you spent.
YANBU..I see where you are coming from.
YABU.. You are a wally, go back to school!

🤣

Are you one of those 'damp squid' people?

Can you be more pacific?

I am the same with spendthrift. I also thought svelte meant fat/curvy.

I absolutely love your definition of social butterfly hahaha.

the other one isn’t much different

It is quite different - it’s the literal opposite of what OP thought, it couldn’t be much more different 😂

I didn't know that "prodigal son" meant he was wasteful not a golden boy.

Is it?! Am I just as bad 😂

I’ve just re read it and still think they sound close

I always get confused about spendthrift - it just doesn’t make sense to me. But social butterfly does make sense - and can’t you understand it from the context?

I’ve always struggled with spendthrift, it just doesn’t seem to make sense.

Spendthrift is surely an oxymoron, Ive always known what it means but it doesnt make sense

😂

I never knew that spendthrift meant that either 😂😂

I’ve always assumed spendthrift meant the opposite, I really never knew this!

Heavy plant crossing. I was flummoxed by that one for years. Always thought of triffids when I was a kid. Knew it couldn't be that but it was years into adulthood before I knew for sure what it meant. (probably when Google was invented so I could look it up without embarrassing myself by asking an acutal human).

My mum thought that social mobility referred to getting out and about socially 😊

Tall, Dark and Handsome. I always pictured that to mean a white man and that the "dark" was in reference to features such as black/brown hair or brown eyes. A friend told me that the dark was in reference to skin colour and that it basically meant a person of colour.

Before anyone comments that it shows my bias, I am a person of colour!

I thought 'it's baltic' meant it was really hot until I was well into my 20s.

Or put on a pedal stool

Road Works Ahead

No it fucking doesn't!

‘Prodigal son’ is used as a reference to the Bible parable of the son’s return being celebrated. Like we use Samaritan to mean an individual helping someone in distress, as in the parable, and not just anyone from the historical region of Samaria.

No it doesnt. It means a dark haired man.

English is an interesting language,
and especially more so when you start throwing some colloquialisms in there. You really do have to understand the etymology of the idiom before you can really understand what idea is being conveyed
An awful lot of people hear a saying and then just assume they know what it means but words are confusing without context.
More times than not the sayings are historically based. As a child I loved finding out the meanings behind strange sayings and I had many books about this very topic.

(Example "good night sleep tight...."
What does sleep tight mean?
I'm not asking the question, I know the answer...but if you don't know what it means, you could find out historically the story about the history of rope-based bed frames)

You could Google what some of the most commonly misunderstood phrases and sayings in the English language are and I'm sure that there'd be a huge list.
But you're right, some sayings could potentially be taken two ways if you're not sure where the saying comes from, or if you've missed heard it and you've never seen the words spelled, as there are many words that sound like other things, and that can also lead to misunderstanding.

Good luck!
🍀

You were correct, not your friend

Huge numbers of our phrases come from navy and shipping and also pests and infestations.