Off on an idiomatic tandem...

[sheenaghpugh]

Metaphors do wear out sometimes, in the sense that the field from which the metaphor is drawn becomes unfamiliar, so that its meaning is no longer clear to those wishing to use it, and when that happens, the metaphor is liable to get changed. This makes sense, when it is changed to something that does carry meaning to the speaker. For instance, I used to know a nice old gentleman to whom old-fashioned bicycles were more familiar than geometry, which was why, when a conversation had strayed from the subject, he was apt to say "I think we've gone off on a tandem". This may, technically, have been incorrect, but it made just as much sense in the context as "gone off at a tangent" (as well as being vastly more original and entertaining). Ditto the fishermen's union spokesman, annoyed at new European quotas, who claimed his members were being treated as political prawns. A small insignificant fish, frequently the prey of larger species, would do just as well as a minor, frequently-sacrificed chess piece to make his point, and better, if he wasn't an habitual chess player.

What's harder to understand is when an idiom gets changed to something that couldn't possibly make any sense to anyone. "Toe the line", meaning to follow orders exactly, is clearly enough visualised in terms of schoolchildren or soldiers standing along a line marked on the floor. Possibly schools don't actually do this any more. But "tow the line", as we often see it written down by students these days, can only mean to haul a rope behind one, and it isn't easy to fathom how they get any relevant meaning out of that.

At least, though, there is a possible meaning. What on earth is in the minds of those who, wishing to say that something is up for debate, say "it's a mute point"? OK, they don't get "moot" because the Anglo-Saxon word for a meeting where you debate things is no longer familiar. But why would a debating point be silent? Then there's the impossible-to-visualise "off his own back" for "off his own bat". Again one can see how, in an era where cricket is less familiar, people might be missing the point that while it takes two players to score a run, it is only credited to the one whose bat it came off - hence, off his own bat: on his own initiative. But what on earth could "off his own back" possibly mean? Changing one idiom, the sense of which one no longer understands, to another that makes no better sense (or even any sense at all) does seem a bit baffling.

Comments

Idioms

[rob spence (from livejournal.com)]

Isn't the point that these are all misheard phrases, or malapropisms, rather than changes? My favourite was a student who wrote "to all intensive purposes" which certainly enlivened a dead idiom.

Re: Idioms

[sheenaghpugh]

Yes, but... even if you mishear something, you expect it to make some sense? If it doesn't, you'd conclude that maybe you had misheard, not simply go on using an impenetrable idiom. Except that people clearly do just that.

Eggcorns!

[andrew shields (from livejournal.com)]

The linguist Geoffrey Pullum (who recently moved from Santa Cruz to Edinburgh) came up with a term for this kind of thing: eggcorn.

There's a Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn

And a website:

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/browse-eggcorns/

There are over 600 "eggcorns" there, including "toe/two the line" and "moot/mute point," but not including your "tandem/tangent", "pawn/prawn", or "back/bat".

As for "moot/mute point", "mute point" makes more sense when people are using "moot point" in the second meaning listed here:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moot_point

That is, when "moot point" means not "point under discussion" but instead "point that is not worth discussing; point that is beside the point," then the replacement of "moot" by "mute" makes sense, doesn't it?

Re: Eggcorns!

[sheenaghpugh]

Not really.... not to me, anyway. But then I've never heard the phrase used with that second meaning. The OED doesn't give it, either, so I wonder if it's just a wiki invention that won't last?

Re: Eggcorns!

[(Anonymous)]

Well, the OED does define "moot" as an adjective both as "open to debate" and "unable to be resolved."

Re: Eggcorns!

[sheenaghpugh]

Unable to be resolved isn't the same as unable to be debated, though!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I remember a time when I too thought "toe the line" was "tow the line". I think I explained it to myself by imagining a bunch of people hauling a bluestone or perhaps a stone block for an Egyptian pyramid, and an overseer cracking the whip and crying "Tow the line, you scurvy dogs!" Or words to that effect.

I suspect that people who say "that's a moot/mute point" often mean that it's not capable of being decided, and therefore it's not really up for debate, hence "mute".

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I suspect it's something to do with the way the brain works- clichés are filed by their meaning not by the individual words, and it's less energy intensive to use a familiar word than one that isn't on the tip of your tongue. But when a LESS familiar word somehow gets the job I have no idea how that happens.

'Per say' is frequently used instead of 'per se' and 'make due' somehow has been accepted as preferable to 'make do' to the point where I've seen someone bossily point out the mistake of writing 'make do'.

[sheenaghpugh]

Hadn't heard those two, but another that is almost ubiquitous - and again meaningless - is "step foot" for "set foot".

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen my entry on word misuse I've found in recent fanfic?

There's a lot of misunderstood words.

http://feng-shui-house.dreamwidth.org/1303474.html

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

'Going off at a tangent' makes far more sense to me as it's so visual, like leaving orbit at high speed.

I haven't heard some of the others but when I see them written I'm inclined to bail out (rather than bale out) as they almost hurt.

I'm puzzled by how 'quite a xxx' has become 'quite the xxx' ubiquitously, even in British English. How did that happen so fast?

[Edit] Oh, and do you remember Lord Circumference and his son Lord Tangent from Decline and Fall? That really appealed to me.

[sheenaghpugh]

Quite a/quite the is doubly odd, because they really mean different things, with a whole different tone. "He's quite a philosopher" would mean he he was quite a philosophical person, it would be neutral or even admiring. "He's quite the philosopher" would be said with a distinctly sarky sneer and would imply that he tended to post "inspirational" quotes on Facebook. There's a definite undertone of "faux" about it.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

But I keep hearing it said sincerely, mostly on TV and in books, and no one seems to use the 'a' version any more (except me). Interestingly tonight I saw a Simpsons from 9 years ago and Lisa used it. I think it's changed in the last 3-4 years.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I think the point of "off his own bat" is that the batsman hit the ball, so the runs are credited to him - as opposed to byes or leg-byes, where the ball passed by him or came off his body, which are counted as extras.

[san-valentine.livejournal.com]

I've also seen per say written more often than I'd like to think.

My favourite is probably 'developing solid fountains to build on', rather than foundations. I can see how someone might mishear 'foundations' but how the heck does building on fountains make sense ?

Though a close runner up was 'I don't think I'm creating a president here'. They meant precedent, not a politician.

[sheenaghpugh]

Let us at all costs create no more presidents.... Actually a lot of these are not pure mishearing, are they, it's people with a poor vocabulary actually not knowing words like precedent.