"A long road to hoe"
Last week, I heard an athlete on the radio talking about how his team needed to regroup and play better. He then proclaimed how they needed to "nip this in the butt".
sigh
Obviously, this young man has never raised plants, because I think most people realize that, in order to stop something from growing out of control, you nip it in the bud... not in the butt.
Also last week, I heard another person declare that elected officials working on budgets had a "long road to hoe".
sigh
Again, an agricultural term. As a farmer's daughter, I spent all of my summers out in the fields pulling weeds one row of beans at a time. The whole family would go out in a line, each member choosing a row to walk along with a hoe balanced over his/her shoulder. Sometimes you could look ahead and see that your particular row of beans was crowded with a lot more weeds than everyone else's. That, my friends, is a long row to hoe.
I've never seen anyone hoe a road.
What terms and/or phrases do you often hear people use incorrectly?
Jul 6, 2011 at 6:03 a.m.
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"A long rode to ho." Is misspelled not mispronounced.
A rode is the rope or chain from the anchor to the ship. Strong wind or current requires a long rode to keep the ship from drifting. To pull a rope on a ship is to Heave Ho. You advance on the command Heave and pull on Ho.
To pull a ship in heavy wind or current is a tought hard task that takes a long time.
May 20, 2010 at 1:13 a.m.
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It drive me crazy when people say a mute point, rather than a moot point. (Moot = debatable, of little value. Mute = unable to speak.)
May 12, 2010 at 6:08 p.m.
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I've often heard people say that they "could care less" when I'm pretty sure what they mean is that they "couldn't care less".
May 11, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.
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Beth, it IS "All intents and purposes". I had to double check it to be sure... but that is the correct phrase.
May 10, 2010 at 3:18 p.m.
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Is it "all intents and purposes" or "all intensive purposes"? I think it's the former, but I've heard the latter quite a bit, too.
May 10, 2010 at 3:12 p.m.
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"Prolly" instead of "probably" is another one.
Also, "could of", "would of", and "should of" instead of could've, would've, and should've.
May 10, 2010 at 3:08 p.m.
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Battree is alway a favorite.
May 10, 2010 at 1:15 p.m.
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Like Frogger said, " An old wise-tale"
I also hear people say "Valentime's" instead of "Valentine's", "old-timers" instead of "Alzheimer's". I've also heard people use the word "pitch" to describe things. "pitch white", "pitch wet" and "pitch cold" to name a few. Those folks are usually surprised to learn that "pitch black" means something dark...like pitch. Then you have to tell them that pitch is a dark, tar-like substance so they understand.
"orientate" instead of "orient", "accept/except", "affect/"effect", "than/then", "your/you're", "there/their/they're", "to/two/too", "chester drawers" instead of "chest OF drawers", "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents AND purposes" and "diffuse/defuse". There are many more terms and phrases I hear but I'll leave it now.
May 10, 2010 at 12:38 p.m.
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If people would speak clearly this would never happen ! )
I always thought, for a long time, it was "an old wise tale.
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