It's "set foot", people, not "step foot"!

[BrightOrangeDahlias]

Yet another thread where this phrase has come up. It makes me want to scream into a pillow. Where has "step foot" come from?!? And can it bugger off back again?

Ah, surely all new terms of phrase <kill me now>

True.
However, I suspect utmost was once 'uttermost'. Perhaps utmost didn't make sense to the 'uttermost' people at first.
Maybe uttermost was once 'utterly the most', and maybe uttermost didn't make sense to the 'utterly the most' people at first.
😄

It’s standard Hiberno-English, rather than an error. It follows the distinction between the Irish verbs ‘beir’ and ‘tóg’.

I don't mind things that like, it strikes me as vernacular - like the perpetual 'I was sat'. In speech it's acceptable, but written down, particularly when written in a piece of formal writing it grates on my nerves.

And the 'another think/thing coming' actually made me argue with my editor. She corrected my 'another think' to 'another thing' and I got cross. She left my original version in the end (after I'd asked her what she thought 'another thing coming' was supposed to mean, when there wasn't even a 'thing' in the first place...)

It is probably because of not reading books. So it only gets heard, except that it is misheard.

Pedants corner used to be a place to discuss SPaG in general. Not take the piss out of posters mistakes on MN.

Haven't RTFT but the amount of times I've seen been instead of being, it's constant. His/he's is another particular favourite 🙄

But ‘another thing’ is just wrong. It’s a widespread mishearing of an idiom. Using ‘bring’ and ‘take’ differently is standard Hiberno-English, as derived from Irish. It’s nothing like ‘I was sat’. I write novels, and would only use bring/take in the UK way if I were writing from the POV of a British character.

I know another thing is wrong. It was the fact that my editor (I also write novels) was hanging on to it being correct! 'I was sat' - whilst being grammatically incorrect, is how some people talk. There's a lot of dialogue in my novels, so I would use it if that's how a character spoke. Bring and take again, might be grammatically incorrect, but right for the way a person with a Scots background would talk.

Yes, I know you know that! I’m saying that the Hiberno-English usage of bring/take isn’t ‘incorrect’, or something appropriate only in speech. It’s standard.

I see your Wallah and I raise you:

"Bone Apple Tea"

When I saw it on social media I assumed it was a deliberately jokey spelling. It wasn't.

Gets on my wick too. See also 'to all intensive purposes'.

Is 'Step foot' an 'Americanism'?

Ok, but it translates to the same thing?

Unlike fell swoop/foul swoop.

This week has also brought poker dots, which is quite charming but would never happen in Scotland.

"Excited for" gets up my nose. "Excited about", surely.

Yes it's one of the expressions which has been shortened/truncated to a version that makes no sense.

Likewise I hear lots of people say they "spend money like water" which makes no sense! The original/correct expression is "money runs through my hands like water". But I think everyone on this thread knows that. The offenders won't come to Pedants' Corner because they don't care!

I’ve recently realised that my DH says Chester drawers.

We’ve been together for 30 years, how have I not noticed this? I can’t garrotte him because he has hearing loss since childhood, so clearly has misheard a lot.

But I can’t believe I didn’t notice <wails and wrings hands>

But it’s an irritating tautology.

I had to read ‘Bone Apple Tea’ aloud twice. ‘Poker dots’ is quite sweet, though it does suggest someone burning symmetrical dot patterns onto fabric with a red-hot poker. It did, however, make me go and look up the (rather disappointing) origins of ‘polka dot’.

What's bone apple tea when it's at home?!

‘Bon appétit’.

Sorry, should have explained. Bon Appetit!

Can I please throw in the phrase "I could care less"
Because arrrggghhhhh!
If you could care less it means you care damnit! What you want to say is couldn't!
Drives me up the wall.

Atleast they used their space bar correctly; incase you hadn't noticed alot of people don't these days. Infact I'd say it's atleast 50% of posters on here. Abit of primary level refresher training wouldn't hurt.

Yes. I was going to say that, but you beat me to it. Eggcorns are mishearing of sayings (presumably the word derives from acorns) that get accepted into speech, despite making no sense.

I was just about to post this. It makes no sense, but is used much more than the correct quotation.