When examined, or just because it’s weird on its own.

Example: Beat a dead horse

  1. You whip a horse to go faster
  2. It dies from being whipped too much
  3. You still want the horse to go faster
  4. You continue to whip it
  • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    “I’m not here to fuck spiders” - said by Australians who want to drop the preamble and get down to business.

  • Grimy@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    It’s raining cats and dogs.

    Somehow, heavy rain is represented by a downpour of household animals.

  • Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
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    10 days ago

    “Quitting cold turkey” - I never actually thought about this one, but apparently it’s directly related to addiction (which seems kind of obvious now that I do think about it). When you quit an addiction abruptly, you sometimes get that cold goosebump skin like a cold turkey.

    • Lenny@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      No I think it refers to the motion of the head going over the heels. Not being positioned in a static frame over the heels.

  • John Doe@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    My father-in-law from rural west Texas refers to things as being ‘slicker than owl shit’ and some people as being ‘richer than ten feet up a bull’s ass.’

    • wuphysics87@lemmy.mlOP
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      11 days ago

      There are a lot of good Texasism. I was living in Texas when I first heard “Oh bless her heart.”. Mean either she’s a good person, or she’s dumber than dog shit.

  • j4k3@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    “scientists say…”

    They aren’t some unified entity. They don’t even agree amongst themselves on most things if one digs deep enough. While there is some interpretation of the data involved, most people that use the phrase “Scientists say…” are essentially saying “Objective observations done by several of the smartest humans have been argued over by several of their rivals resulting in…”

    Like, we should start calling them something like Observational Data Warriors ™ /s to put perspective on the magnitude of information and depth involved. You can have an opinion but you are a coward of no relevant value if you are not trained for battle and fighting on the front lines. So whatever nonsense you have to say results in you looking like a clown of no note.

  • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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    11 days ago

    Taking God’s name in vain

    1. You invoke God on some topic you’re wrong about.
    2. God appears and sees your worthless comment.
    3. ???
    4. God punishes you, or he backs away, or he learns to not listen to you anymore in boy cries wolf type situation? Its really not clear what the repercussions are.
    • CuriousRefugee@lemmy.ml
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      11 days ago

      No, no, it was originally “Taking God’s name in vein,” as saying the name of God out loud would allow Him into your blood. If you say the name of God, you allow him to inhabit your blood, gain your power, and become even more mighty. The ancient Hebrews feared God gaining too much power, as He would be able to destroy the world. Then Christians figured out that if they took Communion and instead drank the blood of Christ, they could reverse the Hebrew God’s power and slowly increase their own until they could ascend to the heavens and do battle with the Almighty, empowered by His blood in their veins, rather than weakened by taking His name in vein. In this seventeen-part essay, I will describe how we can defeat God by

    • wuphysics87@lemmy.mlOP
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      11 days ago

      That’s one that always bothered me too. When I say “Jesus fucking Christ” I mean it. Which is it’s own weird ism when you think about it…

    • stray@pawb.social
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      9 days ago

      I think the idea was that he could be invoked by his name, but they couldn’t have people going around saying “Jehova” (or whatever) randomly without any cool powers happening, so they made up the rule to discourage people poking holes in their flimsy story.

      • LordPoopyIV@lemmy.ml
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        10 days ago

        The typesetter one makes so much sense, since handling mirror images of letter you will definitely get your p and q mixed up.

      • Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee
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        10 days ago

        The Wikipedia entry on that one is a fun read. I’ve heard most of these possible origins before, but nobody is actually sure of the true origin of the phrase. It’s kind of frustrating, but also pretty neat that we still use a phrase long after we forgot where it came from.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      It’s not a common saying here and I assumed it meant to pay attention to detail, be meticulous and precise, like “dot the i’s and cross the t’s”. ‘p’ and ‘q’ can be written similarly.

  • weeeeum@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Break a leg

    How does telling someone to sustain serious injuries imply you want them to succeed?

    • Contramuffin@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      My understanding is that that was the original intention of the phrase. It’s meant to be ironic but then the irony was lost as the phrase got more popular

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    10 days ago

    Whenever my dad is being lazy or doing something too slowly, my mom says he’s “dicking the dog”. Whatever that means.

  • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    As happy as Larry.

    Now… who is Larry, why is he happy, how happy, like a little bit or ecstatic?

    Be like Larry.