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Lame Ass Idioms

Metis

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May 2, 2008
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I like all the idioms. The more words and phrases we have to express various nuances is always an improvement to me. My favs are "throwing shade", "it goes to eleven", and "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra"

And as an aside, "I'm not comfortable" is not an idiom, it's just a statement. ;)

It doesn't have to be off-the-wall to be an idiom. "The term idiom refers to a set expression or a phrase comprising two or more words. An interesting fact regarding the device is that the expression is not interpreted literally. The phrase is understood to mean something quite different from what individual words of the phrase would imply. Alternatively, it can be said that the phrase is interpreted in a figurative sense." Idiom - Examples and Definition of Idiom

A couple of decades ago, people were commonly using the phrase in a more literal sense, saying that they weren't comfortable asking a teacher to review a grading decision, or that they wouldn't be comfortable letting their kid fly in an airplane alone. They meant that they experienced a sense of inner unease at those ideas that was telling them that they didn't want to do them.

In the past ten years, I almost always hear the phrase used in a different sense, the one I described in the OP. It has nothing to do with a sense of unease telling them that something might not be a good idea. They just say it because they think it sounds too direct if they just say, "I don't like it."

Here it is! See? This is how people use the phrase now:

The wife of a Manhattan financier hired a nanny for her baby, but freaked out when she realized the caretaker was African-American and fired off a (racist text message). (...) Only she didn’t send the text to (her husband, as intended) — she accidentally sent it to Maurice. Twice. (...) When she realized the gaffe, Plasco-Flaxman immediately fired the experienced caretaker, saying she felt “uncomfortable.”

Mother accidentally sent nanny ‘racist’ text, fired her: suit

"Uncomfortable" has devolved into a copout. It's used figuratively to mean, "I'm not responsible for my actions."
 

Yuurei

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I’m not really a fan of idiums at all.

The prblem is without cultural relevance- which almost no idium retains- it is nonsense, just phrases that people spew forth with no understanding of the meaning, in other words; memes.

I hate memes. They are the lowest form of communication and lower the communicative intellegence of communities.
 

The Cat

Just a Cat who hangs out at the Crossroads
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I’m not really a fan of idiums at all.

The prblem is without cultural relevance- which almost no idium retains- it is nonsense, just phrases that people spew forth with no understanding of the meaning, in other words; memes.

I hate memes. They are the lowest form of communication and lower the communicative intellegence of communities.


 
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I definitely hate anything based on culture, so yes idioms and memes are both painful for me to listen to and use.

I'm someone who likes purity of thought... say something that comes from within your own mind instead of copying everyone else!

I respect anyone if they are insightful and original. Well just as long as they aren't crazy and deluded. I'm not sure what's worse: deluded people who live in their minds and don't see the world, or people whose minds don't even have anything inside them.
 

The Cat

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"a piece of cake" "as easy as pie"
 

Mad Hatter

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"As a matter of fact, ..."

Can a native speaker please explain to me what this means exactly? Is this the opposite to "As a matter of fiction" or what?
 

The Cat

Just a Cat who hangs out at the Crossroads
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"As a matter of fact, ..."

Can a native speaker please explain to me what this means exactly? Is this the opposite to "As a matter of fiction" or what?

As a matter of fact, it is exactly like that.
 

The Cat

Just a Cat who hangs out at the Crossroads
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Also used "as a matter of fact" as opposed to"as a matter of opinion", or "a matter for debate"
 

Metis

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"As a matter of fact, ..."

Can a native speaker please explain to me what this means exactly? Is this the opposite to "As a matter of fiction" or what?

LOL I'm so used to hearing my dad and his generation say that, I wouldn't have thought of it. Just sounds normal to me.

I like it better than what younger people say that means the same thing. "Actually..." I hear "As a matter of fact" in a mature man's voice in my mind, and I hear "Actually" in a younger, snittier-sounding tone of voice. :/

Good one.
 
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