Idioms people don't understand

I was brought up on a big council estate in Manchester where vocabulary was rather limited, especially amongst young children. I loved to read and the local librarians really took me under their wings and encouraged me to use any new words I discovered whenever I could. I always tried to work out pronunciation, but must often have got it wrong and I now realise what a strange child I must have seemed.

In company my mother used to tell people I’d swallowed a dictionary. ☺️

I have heard people say they are "ravishing" when they mean they are "ravenous" It always makes me laugh.

Auntieflo

I have just read on the local Next Door forum, an electrician saying "it's all a process of illumination"? when advising on how to check the usage of a smart meter.
I think he meant elimination. Made me smile though.

It is a process of illumination when reading the different coloured lights for week, day, hour readings. I think it is a clever statement.

But Doodledog surely a reader would question the sense of a sentence such as, 'The witness my sled the jury.' or, 'I was my sled by the advert.'

I am driven mad by the emergence of "if you think that you have got another thing coming". What is that supposed to mean?

I still remember my shame in high school when I pronounced the word lingerie as it is spelled and not in the french way.

lizzypopbottle

But Doodledog surely a reader would question the sense of a sentence such as, 'The witness my sled the jury.' or, 'I was my sled by the advert.'

That was just a phonetic explanation, not a suggestion that anyone would think 'misled' was two words, and was anyway just an example of a word that might be mispronounced if it had been read but not heard. Others have given examples of their own.

MaizieD

I agree that it's sometimes because the word has been read rather than heard. I was puzzled for years by the US word 'clothespin'. It took me decades to realise that it was 'a clothes pin' i.e a clothes peg...

Conversely I think people mispronounce words because they haven't read it properly... especially if they were taught to read by 'look and say' (seeing the word as a 'whole') and not by decoding. The letter sequence is meaningless to them.

I am surprised you regard clothespin as an American word.

To me it is Scots although only used by ladies of my grandmother's generation when I was a child, But perhaps I misunderstood and you meant the spelling of it as one word, not two?

It certainly threw me when written as one word - I was genuinely wondering what a cloth spin was!

Actually, that has reminded me of a word that regularly causes me to do a double take when I see it: 'coworker'.
I immediately think of someone who works with cows!

I once had a friend who, as an ex head teacher ought to have known better, always said someone was eesentric (eccentric) rather than ekcentric. It drove me nuts!

I suppose lots of America has kept old ways or saying/writing things that have evolved over here into something different.

Of course I can't think of anything now as I started to write before I went to answer the door...

But of course we have strayed from idioms

Doodledog

But who 'should know better'? People say things the way they were taught - ie the way people around them say them - whether that is correctly or incorrectly. We are just lucky if those around us pronounce things in Standard English. I don't think it's so much that we are not allowed to correct people, but that it would be extremely rude to do so (teachers and parents aside). Manners are about not making people feel uncomfortable, surely?

I once read something that made me think - when people pronounce something as it is written (eg 'misled' pronounced 'my sled') it shows that they have taught themselves the word by reading. Those who pronounce it in Standard English are simply parroting what they have heard, so what gives them the right to the high ground? It's an interesting point of view.

I knew of someone who pronounced misled as ‘mizzled’.

My younger brother was a voracious reader early on, and often mispronounced words he’d read and understood from the context, but hadn’t heard spoken.
So e.g. ‘I know it was you, so you needn’t denny it!’

But our all-time favourite was Gribble-ayter (as in The Rock of…) 😂
We still call it that!

My grandson was perplexed when I talked about cooking a Sunday joint.

I remember my Italian friend dramatically covering her face with her beautifully manicured hands and crying ‘I am so ash-amed’ (ashamed) and wondering why I giggled. Ever after I have been at times ash-amed!

Do any of you have mispronounced words as family favourites used for ever and a day? ‘Flutterbys and parcarks are favourites with the flower anniemoan (anenome) from my childhood but still used.

Gin

I remember my Italian friend dramatically covering her face with her beautifully manicured hands and crying ‘I am so ash-amed’ (ashamed) and wondering why I giggled. Ever after I have been at times ash-amed!

Do any of you have mispronounced words as family favourites used for ever and a day? ‘Flutterbys and parcarks are favourites with the flower anniemoan (anenome) from my childhood but still used.

Yes - we have aspar-are-gus (with the stress one 'are') in our family instead of asparagus.

‘Restbite’ instead of respite.

Took me ages to realise that Linkedin wasn't a Swedish site called link-ed- in. I prefer my way!

I have a friend who goes on a 'learning kerb', rather than a learning curve. I have told her and even drawn a graph to explain but she sticks with her way; maybe she prefers it that way.

I knew of someone who pronounced misled as ‘mizzled’.
It's perfectly logical, though, and doesn't make them less intelligent (not that I'm suggesting you thought that ). A friend's father was very well read, but was self-taught as he'd left school at 14, and used to talk about things like the battle of Traff-el- garr. he knew more about it than most, but hadn't heard it spoken.

Mamie

I am driven mad by the emergence of "if you think that you have got another thing coming". What is that supposed to mean?

Yes, that one gets my goat too, Mamie. It seems nonsensical! Another think makes perfect sense. I think some people just plug into a word or phrase and just don't think about the meaning at all.

sodapop, I find the word lingerie is increasingly often pronounced "lonjeray" instead of "lanjerie", the French way, and it drives me wild. Including on the Great British Sewing Bee, where they should know how to pronounce kinds of clothing!

grandtanteJE65

MaizieD

I agree that it's sometimes because the word has been read rather than heard. I was puzzled for years by the US word 'clothespin'. It took me decades to realise that it was 'a clothes pin' i.e a clothes peg...

Conversely I think people mispronounce words because they haven't read it properly... especially if they were taught to read by 'look and say' (seeing the word as a 'whole') and not by decoding. The letter sequence is meaningless to them.

I am surprised you regard clothespin as an American word.

To me it is Scots although only used by ladies of my grandmother's generation when I was a child, But perhaps I misunderstood and you meant the spelling of it as one word, not two?

I only ever read it, never heard it, and I read it in US books. It was always written as 'clothespin'. If it had been two words I would have got it straight away

Recently a poster referred to a catheter as a caffater. Presumably she had only heard the word spoken and she pronounced ‘th’ as ‘f’.

Actually, that has reminded me of a word that regularly causes me to do a double take when I see it: 'coworker'.
I immediately think of someone who works with cows!

The refusal to hyphenate drives me crazy. I always read it as cow worker, too...
Also 'cooperate' as 'cooper ate'. 'Noone' as the middle of the day...

I heard someone ask for a "Mosher" in Starbucks recently. It was Mocha.

Asparagus is Sparrow Grass in my family and, if it was really delicious, my dad would say it was unsurprassed - no matter how many times my mom tried to correct him. The word has stuck in my personal lexicon and gets me the occasional odd look when I utter it in public.😄