Me: Harlan Ellison was a bit of an unctuous fellow
Co-Worker: Ok, stop. You DO NOT know what that word means.
Oh dear! Yeah...
Me: Harlan Ellison was a bit of an unctuous fellow
Co-Worker: Ok, stop. You DO NOT know what that word means.
So, I never really thought about this before, but I guess people are saying that that care quite a bit?
It's fun to admit you're wrong sometimes!
It's fun to admit you're wrong sometimes!
I just read this one on Twitter:
"All of the sudden...('x' happened.)"
I still get quite irritated when people use diffuse instead of defuse in the sense of 'defusing the situation'. I can see why they might get it wrong. But they should all be sent on a bomb disposal course to understand why it is better to defuse a bomb than diffuse it.
Person 1: "Blabbing on about what the Kardashians have been up to."
Larry, that’s pretty compelling stuff, I need to know what happened next!
'unctuous' is a bit elusive to define, but I recall Peter Ustinov being very good at portraying such characters in movies about ancient times. Wealthy merchants in particular have gotten the 'unctuous' adjective, ime.
I read here at AW: "It's a working progress . . ."
It defines me, but I'd rather be a loafing progress.
Not phrases but words.
A former coworker
sangwich
Valentime's Day
A couple I heard of (not directly) that have that sort of "it's wrong, but it makes *sense*!" vibe - someone after a traumatic event being in the "feeble position". And a noisy crowd creating a "cacoughony" of sound.
In "The Kembleford Boggart" episode of Father Brown last night, subtitles had the good priest state they awaited a new novel "with baited breath."
Wonder if they used worms or minnows?
"I could care less."
Thing-gee.
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The one that really annoys me right now:
"i.e." instead of "e.g." when the writer means "e.g."