Common expressions

[Suzanne]

Are there any expressions that are used liberally, but are distastful to you? And that you have changed to ease your imagination?

There are a few, but the biggest one is "kill two bird's with one stone" and even typing that makes me feel horrible. Such a cruel expression. So, I have changed it to: save two birds with one net, and get a few rye smiles from those around me.

 

[Suzette]

I don't usually use those kind of expressions in my speech. A few years ago though I got into the habit of saying "you kill me" when someone was particularly funny and my friend Mike got upset with that. He said it made him feel bad so I haven't used it since.

 

[Progster]

I don't like the expression "wear one's heart on one's sleeve." I didn't understand it at all when I first heard it and all I got was this mental image of a heart on a sleeve.

I don't like "I could care less" because it's wrong. It should be "I couldn't care less" and it actually says the opposite to what the person actually means. So confusing!

 

[Suzette]

I don't like the expression "wear one's heart on one's sleeve." I didn't understand it at all when I first heard it and all I got was this mental image of a heart on a sleeve.

I don't like "I could care less" because it's wrong. It should be "I couldn't care less" and it actually says the opposite to what the person actually means. So confusing!

I have spent a lot of time saying "what do you mean?".

You are correct. The phrase really is "I couldn't care less". If someone says "I could care less" they are showing their ignorance, that's all.

 

[Thinx]

He's a glass half empty person. Or vice versa, he's a glass half full person. Yes I know what it implies. Pessimist, optimist. But, heck people, that glass HAS THE SAME AMOUNT IN IT! I just can't get past that....

 

[Raggamuffin]

In the UK - trying to negotiate with Cockney rhyming slang can be a nightmare for most people, let alone when you can struggle socially anyway.

Another issue I have is not hearing people properly. So I have to ask them to repeat. But I can only do this a max of 3 times. Each request becomes more and more awkward.

Rhyming slang and mottos etc do feel rather old fashioned though. If anything, I'm more annoyed by modern use of terms which now become slang.

The overuse of the word "banter" or "bants" makes me want to throttle people.

Ed

 

[Streetwise]

Mine is when humans ! use the name of an animal as a curse word

 

[Misery]

"All but X"

One of those "pretty sure that's not how words work" sorts. People always say things like "And the game was all but over" to mean "yeah it's definitely over" when that combination of words literally means "everything other than over", so, "definitely NOT over".

What's worse is that every now and then someone will use that in the way that DOES make sense, which then just becomes even more confusing.

 

[Streetwise]

Some British terms are very uncomfortable to me.

Like for instance:

Spotted dick is a food in England.

In America, you fall on your fanny, some even got a belt or flip flop to the fanny. This is not the case in England.

Faggots are cords of wood in England or cigarettes.

An ass is an animal in England.

Imagine having to eat it, it is not the lightest of desserts quite why dick (Richard) is included as a pudding passes me

 

[Streetwise]

Some British terms are very uncomfortable to me.

Like for instance:

Spotted dick is a food in England.

In America, you fall on your fanny, some even got a belt or flip flop to the fanny. This is not the case in England.

Faggots are cords of wood in England or cigarettes.

An ass is an animal in England.

Faggots the flesh of an animal and the body parts of an animal ground up into a ball, fags(fag sing) are cigarettes not faggots.
An ass is the mating of a horse and a donkey.
Just like other countries, each area of the UK has its own particular words, if I travel 150 miles ,there are words I have never used, just because those words you've mentioned are used in one area ,they are not necessarily used in another area, Americans appear to think everybody from the UK lives in East London.

 

[Nairobi]

I did not like when someone asked me if my husband and I were "trying for a baby". That sounded like a really invasive question. I was confused why someone would think that was appropriate to ask, then somebody else explained that they were just asking if we were thinking about having children. Which I still think is an invasive question, but why make it worse by zeroing in on bedroom activities? Jeez louise, people!

 

[Nairobi]

Imagine having to eat it, it is not the lightest of desserts quite why dick (Richard) is included as a pudding passes me

I cannot handle this. I didn't know what it was, I just kept hearing about it on "Great British Menu" - even when I finally saw what it looked like, it didn't cause enough of a visual impact to remove the mental image that comes to mind from the name.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I hate it when people say "be yourself." That is so obviously stupid coming from people who really do not want you to do so.

 

[unperson]

actually and literally are overused.

 

[Streetwise]

I cannot handle this. I didn't know what it was, I just kept hearing about it on "Great British Menu" - even when I finally saw what it looked like, it didn't cause enough of a visual impact to remove the mental image that comes to mind from the name.

That depends on your knowledge, the shortened name for Richard, wasn't used lot when I was a child !as an alternative expression for a penis.

 

[Suzette]

My fellow Americans, "Dick" was a name long before it was a euphamism for penis.
A few famous Dicks:
Dick Van Dyke
Dick Cavett
Dick Clark
Dick Cheney
Dick Van Patten
I can't imagine Richard the Lionheart was ever called Dick though.

Euphamisims are silly things anyway. They are supposed to be more polite somehow. Yet if the feeble human mind wasn't offended by facts, no one would use them.
It realy does not make any sense. Euphamisims are a form of socially acceptable obsfucating of the truth. Yet, supposedly, we value honesty and transpearancy. This confuses me most of all.

When I was growing up my mother and I once had the following conversation;
Mom: "You know what boys want"
Me: "No, what is it?"
Mom: "Don't play games with me young lady!"
Me: "I really don't know what you mean. What do boys want?"
Mom: "I've had enough of this young lady!"
I spent the next decade trying to sort out what she meant. I have no idea why she didn't just say "boys want sex". <sigh>

 

[Nairobi]

That depends on your knowledge, the shortened name for Richard, wasn't used lot when I was a child !as an alternative expression for a penis.

Why was it called a spotted Richard? I think it’s a confusing name to me for a dessert, that’s why I didn’t guess they were using a short form of Richard in the dessert name. Instead I thought maybe Brits used the d word for something else over there. But my own association was too strong to not still picture something very unappetizing

 

[Streetwise]

Why was it called a spotted Richard? I think it’s a confusing name to me for a dessert, that’s why I didn’t guess they were using a short form of Richard in the dessert name. Instead I thought maybe Brits used the d word for something else over there. But my own association was too strong to not still picture something very unappetizing

It's called a spotted dick (but in the UK dick is a variant of Richard) the spots are dried blackcurrants, it's classified as a pudding which I forgot.

 

[Streetwise]

Why was it called a spotted Richard? I think it’s a confusing name to me for a dessert, that’s why I didn’t guess they were using a short form of Richard in the dessert name. Instead I thought maybe Brits used the d word for something else over there. But my own association was too strong to not still picture something very unappetizing

There are different euphemisms for penis in the uk

 

[tree]

Why was it called a spotted Richard? I think it’s a confusing name to me for a dessert...

BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | Pudding renamed Spotted Richard

Spotted dick - Wikipedia

Etymology
"Spotted" is a clear reference to the dried fruit in the pudding (which resemble spots). "Dick" and "dog" were dialectal terms widely used for pudding, from the same etymology as "dough" (i.e., the modern equivalent name would be "spotted pudding"). In late 19th century Huddersfield, for instance, a glossary of local terms described: "Dick, plain pudding. If with treacle sauce, treacle dick."