Changing idioms

I get annoyed at "step foot" instead of "set foot" (probably due to people not listening properly) and calling the ground the floor.

The one that annoys me most at present is "the proof is in the pudding". NO!!! "The proof of the pudding is in the eating"

I know language evolves, but some of the changes to idioms make nonsense of them

When I was in my 30's I met a lovely lady in her 80.s walking, and we became great friends, going on walks together and getting up to various things, as we had similar attitudes. Hated boring shopping for clothes, walking round shopping malls etc but would go off to walk along the coast or by a river etc.

One day I suggested we went somewhere and she replied that she was sorry but she was "driving some of the old people to the shops" We would go off for walks, and she happily climbed stiles and wandered along, with her saying Use it or Lose it, but remind me not to tell her daughter what she was up to. Well in my eighties now I try and keep up her good ways!

I used to teach TEFL and of course there were many lovely mistakes made by the students, and you could tell those who were improving and who were the advanced ones, especially when they understood a joke, that was not a visual one.

Never heard that expression before. What really annoys me is calling 'the ground' 'the floor' ! A floor separates two levels. Do you grow flowers in the floor?

My mother-in-law said she didn't like being offered a seat on public transport in London.

She was mid 80s or early 90s by then.
She would generally accept but said it was "disappointing ".

I read an article recently about idioms to avoid at work because they can be seen as offensive, racist, non-inclusive. Black sheep, pot calling the kettle black. calling a spade a spade. Also avoid other expressions that might hurt a colleague's feelings. Basically if they are not pulling their weight at work it seems you have to wrap up the truth to make it palatable. Listed were expressions that have probably been used in business meetings ever since the year dot but they should now be avoided. Someone might misunderstand or be offended. And don't offer a chair to someone, they might infer you think they look old.

'Step foot' is gradually replacing 'set foot' but why?

Great thread!

When I was a child, I found it hysterically funny, and later on, embarrassing that my mother whose first language was not English talked about "helping lame ducks over stiles". She also had difficulty managing the letter combination de or du at the beginning of words, so she never understood why we giggled when she spoke of "jewel carriageways".

In later years I have heard others who helped lame ducks over stiles, irrespective of the fact that any duck wanting to cross one would probably fly, so some idioms obviously do change.

I have even encountered someone who felt that the idiom "the pot calling the kettle black" was racist!

Never heard of spilling the tea. I did literally spill the tea a few days ago when the mug slipped out of my hand and tea splashed all over the floor. That will remain what spilling the tea means to me.

Great information. Must look up the film as well!

I think I'll stick to beans. I've never heard of spilling tea either!

Oooh thanks for all the finer details! Love it!

Having said that, I’ll probably stick to “spill the beans” and I always adore hearing malapropisms, so thank you to Farmor15

That’s right, NS.

T means truth. It’s morphed from Spill the T to Spill the tea.

It’s come from drag and trans culture.

In John Berendt’s 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - which is both a very good story and made into a very good film starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey and Jude Law - the real-life character Lady Chablis uses T for truth.

In her autobiography, Hiding the Candy, she writes of ”callin' it out and pourin' the T!" meaning she was speaking the raw, honest truth about her life and the people around her.

Just looked this up. Entirely new to me.

"Spill the tea" is slang for sharing gossip, secrets, or the juicy details about a situation.

It originated in black drag culture (specifically in the 1990s) where the letter "T" stood for "Truth."
It quickly evolved into "tea".

​"Straight life must be so boring... These gay kids carry on... They give you dance and great tea. (gossip)"

www.theidioms.com/spill-the-tea/?hl=en-gb

In Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (1994) he interviews the iconic Black drag queen Lady Chablis who says she avoids certain men because they can react violently when they find out her "T" (the truth that she is transgender).

By the time RuPaul’s Drag Race premiered in 2009 and "Stan Twitter" blew up in the mid-2010s, the phrase crossed over from Black queer culture into global internet slang.

I’ve never heard that expression before 😄

spill the tea was an answer on The Chase yesterday afternoon.

It was a repeat (there’s a surprise 😳) it’s been around for a while 🤷‍♀️

I think it's a malapropism. An Irish politician was famous for mixing up sayings- eg "I don’t think it helps people to start throwing white elephants and red herrings at each other."

I’ve never heard this expression “spill the tea!”, it sounds like a malapropism to me 🤣🤣🤣

It sounds to me like it should make stuff less teresting/exciting and drain the energy out... - a bit like "put a damper on"

Yes, it means the same. I think it originated as 'spill the truth'.