For All Intensive Purposes
Ever hear someone misuse a phrase or mix up a metaphore? I like to collect these things, so if you stumble upon one in your professional life, come here and share. Here a re few of my favorites. All were actually overheard in real situations.
“That’s a mute point” instead of “That’s a moot point”
“That’s the death nail for XYZ” as opposed to “That’s the death knell for XYZ”
“That place is a dive in the wall” as opposed to “That place is a hole in the wall”
“That’s water under the carpet” as opposed to “Sweep it under the rug” or “Water under the bridge”
October 11th, 2005 at 11:53 pm
There’s “Play it again sam”, instead of “Play it sam”. I’m sure I’ll think of more…
October 18th, 2005 at 5:38 pm
This isn’t what you are looking for, but I’m watching cops, and this person who was just arrested said “I have agoraphobia so you can’t put me in that little cell, I’ll freak out.”
November 28th, 2005 at 11:30 pm
http://smartstartup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/08/for_all_intensi.html
November 29th, 2005 at 10:28 am
The website http://www.takeourword.com/TOW143half/page3.html has someone railing against the pretentious who say… for all intensive purposes by saying it is “for all intents and purpose”. The actual phrase is “to all intents and purpose”. Nothing kills me more than someone trying to correct someone else and being wrong in the correction.
And likewise, reading words like irregardless in the newspaper or other pieces of “formal” writing kills me too. It is a bastardized combination of irrespective and regardless and as such is NOT considered formally correct.
There, I’m done now.
December 4th, 2005 at 5:26 pm
This is off topic, but i hear “dad gum” a lot these days. What does this mean? Where does it come from? Used in a sentence it goes something like this, “Where are my dad gum shoes?” or “The dad gum cat knocked over the vase!”
December 8th, 2005 at 12:57 pm
Dad gum = god damn.
December 8th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
“The actual phrase is “to all intents and purpose”
Now you’re really spilling hairs.
January 11th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Someone told me yesterday that there handwriting was eligible. Eligible for what I wonder?
April 14th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Audra, it should read “their” and not “there” (FYI)
I have a doctor dictating “for all intensive purposes.” I have just found this web site and it is informative. However, I do find that I have to be very careful in using the correct terminology.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:32 am
Ok I’m going to publicly shame myself and say a few months back I was busted for pronouncing pseudo as “sway-dough”. I can’t remember the last time, prior to that occasion, that I had to say that word (if ever), but I swear I picked up the pronunciation from someone else (more likely it was my own fabrication :) ). Seems a former US president made the same blunder :).
Also, for reasons that escape me, I pronounce iterator ‘eye-ter-ator’ instead of ‘it-er-ator’. Being a programmer I use that word quite a lot, yet it seems I’ve had it wrong all these years. Still sounds right to me, I have no idea why :)
November 29th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
i love spilling hairs. WUHAHA
December 4th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Regardless of what you have heard, “irregardless” is a redundancy. The suffix “-less” on the end of the word already makes the word negative. It doesn’t need the negative prefix “ir-” added to make it even more negative.
December 20th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
I hate when people are unable to spell the word “metaphor”.
February 25th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
It’s humorous to hear people say, “over compensate”
March 8th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
or “pour cold water” instead of “poured called water”. i bet y’all got that one wrong, buttheads!…Y’ALL!!!
March 13th, 2007 at 3:18 am
Excuse me while I kiss this guy.
March 17th, 2007 at 1:13 am
Just stumbled on this post. Interesting read. I wish to add another, rather irksome phrase: “so and so… made a loss on the stock markets”.
The sentence “made a loss” is by itself a paradox. The correct usage should be “suffered a loss”. The opposite, i.e. profit, should be used as “made a profit”.
You make a profit, you suffer a loss. You don’t make a loss! =)