this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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[–] [email protected] 107 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If you're up for something, or down for something, it means the same thing.

If you fill in a form or fill out a form, it means the same thing.

English is fucked.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Think about filling in a form, though. Filling in a form—“to fill” is unambiguous. In/out isn’t even necessary when you think about it. “I’m going to fill a form” means the same thing too.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I feel like you're technically correct, but saying "fill a form" just sounds weird to a native English speaker.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

The alarm went off, so I turned it off.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Don't forget you might already be in the right place and don't need to go up or down. Then you can say you're "there for something"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also try this inflammable table with flammable chairs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I hate this one, it confuses Dutch people from time to time, so they think “inflammable” means “fire resistant”.

Extra scary when there's only an English-language warning on this

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess fat chance is said sarcastically.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I've never not heard it said sarcastically.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There are words and phrases in English that get used sarcastically so often they lose their original meaning. There is a word for this and I swear I've seen a whole list somewhere but my google fu is weak today.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

No - semantic satiation is when you read or hear a word so much in a short timeframe that it stops feeling like a real word, and briefly feels like just a jumble of letters/sounds.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I hate semantic satiation. It happens all the time while programming for me. I'll have a variable name with some common word and, after typing it a few times my brain just stops recognizing it as a real word. This sometimes sends me into etymology dives to figure out why the word "jump" (or whatever) looks so strange.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Row•ads, that is a freaky word

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

There's a fat chance you're gonna be eating those words.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Now, I expect to be down voted.

I don't care, but I'm going to piss a lot of people off.

I say "I could care less".

That's sarcasm. It's what my nineties, heroin chic, grunge music adolescence gave me.

I could care less. It would just require that I make an effort. That's not caring less. That's caring about something.

It's like how the biggest homophobes always seem to be closeted. They care too much.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You think "could care less" is actually legit? Fat chance!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

You think it isn’t? Slim chance!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I remember we used to say “like I could care less” sarcastically back in the late 80s. I moved to a non-English speaking country in ‘89 so I have no idea when “I could care less” shifted from sarcasm to incorrect grammar, but I was surprised the first time I encountered people online mention it as a grammatical pet peeve.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

With you 100%

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I only down voted you, so you'd be right 👍

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You can make profit on and profit off

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I could build on your point or build off of it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

But if you’re hardly working, you’re not working hard.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Alarms can go off and be turned off

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yup. And one means it via sarcasm.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Yeah, with this argument, "excellent" and "terrible" means the same thing.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

one is just said sarcastically

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Fun fact: awful and awesome used to be synonyms

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Antiautonyms! https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/antiauto.html

Or contronyms. I don’t funny understand the delineation between the two.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I've always loved Mace Windu telling someone "your chances come in two sizes: slim and fat" in an old Star Wars Novell called Shatterpoint.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Fat chance is a sarcastic phrase, so they don't actually have the same literal meaning

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago