Idioms We’ve Been Saying Wrong or on Porpoise

I had a friend who mixed his idioms but somehow still made sense. Sayings like: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket because they might hatch before you can count them. And after a certain period of time, one could not be prosecuted for a crime because the statue of eliminations ran out. And I could never blame this guy for anything because he didn’t want to be the escape goat. And of course, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him swim upstream.

I’m sure we’ve all mixed up some sayings in our time. Personally, for years I said that things meant in every practical sense were for all intensive purposes instead of the correct saying, “for all intents and purposes.” Which is embarrassing, because “intensive purposes” sounds like your goals at the gym to lose twenty pounds.

And if you cannot be tried for a crime because of an expired legal time limit, the statute of limitations has run out, whereas a statue of limitations would just stand there quietly judging your inability to sue.

Years ago, I thought if something was handled in one go, it was taken care of in one foul swoop, which sounds less like efficiency and more like a chicken with digestive issues. The correct phrase is one fell swoop, and it comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In the play, Macduff uses it after learning his family has been murdered, comparing the act to a hawk swooping down and killing defenseless birds in one savage strike. Here, fell means fierce or deadly—not fallen, not foul, and not a lumberjack taking down a pine tree before lunch. Today we use it to mean doing something all at once, usually with fewer murders and considerably less poetry.

Here are some idioms people often get wrong—and some are simply the spelling giving a different meaning yet sounding the same:

• Nip it in the bud
  Often misheard as: nip it in the butt
  Meaning: Stop a problem early, before it grows.
  Difference: “One is gardening. The other is assault.”
• I couldn’t care less
  Often said as: I could care less
  Meaning: You care so little that caring less is impossible.
  Difference: “If you could care less, then congratulations—you still care.”
• Another think coming
  Often said as: another thing coming
  Meaning: You need to rethink your assumption.
  Difference: “Though honestly, ‘thing’ has become so common it may have bullied its way into acceptance.”
• Bated breath
  Often written as: baited breath
  Meaning: Breath held in suspense. (bated meaning moderated or restrained. with bated breath = with breath drawn in or held because of anticipation or suspense)
  Difference: “Baited breath sounds like you’ve been chewing minnows.”
• Champing at the bit
  Often said as: chomping at the bit
  Meaning: Eager or impatient to begin.
  Difference: “Horses champ; toddlers chomp.”
• Home in on
  Often said as: hone in on
  Meaning: Move toward or focus on a target.
  Difference: “You hone a knife. You home in on the dessert table.”
• Moot point
  Often misheard as: mute point
  Meaning: A debatable or irrelevant point.
  Difference: “A mute point refuses to speak, which frankly improves many meetings.”
• Pique my interest
  Often written as: peak/peek my interest
  Meaning: Stimulate curiosity.
  Difference: “Your interest is not climbing a mountain or looking through blinds.”
• Deep-seated
  Often said as: deep-seeded
  Meaning: Firmly established.
  Difference: “Unless your resentment is growing tomatoes, it is not deep-seeded.”
• Whet your appetite
  Often written as: wet your appetite
  Meaning: Sharpen or stimulate desire.
  Difference: “To whet means sharpen. To wet your appetite sounds like soup went wrong.”
• Toe the line
  Often written as: tow the line
  Meaning: Obey rules or conform to expectations.
  Difference: “Toe means put your foot on the line. Tow means you brought a truck.”
• Sleight of hand
  Often written as: slight of hand
  Meaning: Skillful trickery, especially with the hands.
  Difference: “A slight of hand sounds like your palm insulted someone.”
• Free rein
  Often written as: free reign
  Meaning: Freedom to act, from loosening a horse’s reins.
  Difference: “Unless you’ve been crowned king of the conference room, it’s rein, not reign.”
• One and the same
  Often written as: one in the same
  Meaning: Two things are actually the same thing
  Difference: “one in the same” sounds like one thing has crawled inside another thing and is living there rent-free.
•  Scapegoat
  Often written as “escape goat”
  Origin: Scapegoat means someone blamed for something they may not be responsible for. The word comes from an ancient biblical ritual in which one goat was sacrificed and another was sent into the wilderness carrying the sins of the people. In other words, the goat got blamed, exiled, and probably left wondering why everyone suddenly had theological beef with livestock. People often mishear it as escape goat, which is understandable, since the goat did technically escape. But the correct word is scapegoat—the original poor creature assigned everyone else’s problems and then told to take a hike.

·      
·       AND BREIFLY:

·       “Take it for granite” → Correct phrase: “Take it for granted.”
Meaning: Fail to appreciate something because you assume it will always be there.

·       “Biting my time” → Correct phrase: “Biding my time.”
Meaning: Waiting patiently for the right moment.

·       “Deep-seeded” → Correct phrase: “Deep-seated.”
Meaning: Firmly established or deeply rooted.

·       “Hunger pains” → Correct phrase: “Hunger pangs.”
Meaning: Sharp feelings of hunger.

·       “Pass mustard” → Correct phrase: “Pass muster.”
Meaning: Meet the required standard.

·       “Case and point” → Correct phrase: “Case in point.”
Meaning: An example that proves or supports what was just said.

·       “Beckon call” → Correct phrase: “Beck and call.”
Meaning: Always ready to obey or respond.

·       “Extract revenge” → Correct phrase: “Exact revenge.”
Meaning: Carry out revenge.

·       “Shoe-in” → Correct phrase: “Shoo-in.”
Meaning: Someone or something almost certain to win or succeed.