FrostyQN

After the first half dozen or so, it just kind of becomes just a thing.

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And there's someone in my head, but it's not me...

NoTrouble

I used to think I was perfect until I realized I lack modesty.

NoTrouble

You're too smart to be that dumb.

pockets

Seems like as a good a place to post this as anywhere else...

People often only use a part of a phrase because that particular part suits their biases. This annoys me to no end... (much like my previous post in this thread).

Great minds think alike!!!
The entire quote...
Great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ.

Curiosity killed the cat!
Ah yes, but...
Satisfaction brought him back.

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kvoyager12

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

rbn

How can ale be so rotten and taste so good at the same time?

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To Each Their Own

Pad

Can I add to that phrases that are misused. For example:

He shot him/herself in the foot

Always used to describe someone making a blunder or mistake. In fact the phrase has it's origins in WWI. Soldiers would "accidentally" shoot themselves in the foot to escape the horrors of the trenches via medical discharge. So what was a very deliberate act is now used to describe a mistake. Arrrggghhhhh!!!!

Funny that - I never heard the second part of that phrase until now.

Reclaimedepb

That is one of the several different possible origins, and I am yet to find a definitive citation giving that as the absolute correct one. The Oxford English Dictionary doesn't find a figurative example of that phrase until 1959. As an literal occurrence, there are examples in print from decades before WWI. Besides, English is and always has been a very fluid language. By the latter part of the 20th century, when the phrase had begun to be used in British slang, the idea that it meant intentional self-harm was completely gone. By now, even in the States, it is meant to describe a situation where one means to do harm to someone else, but accidentally harms themselves. Words and phrases are always changing meaning based on the shifts in verbal usage. Coincidentally, "curiosity killed the cat" not only changed meaning, it changed its own wording. When it originated, as far back as Shakespeare's usage, it was "care killed the cat", without the added part about satisfaction.

Trying to keep the language static is an exercise in futility, and serves no purpose other than to point out the "grammar Nazis".

NoTrouble

I bought one of those keychain devices to locate my car in a parking lot and now I can't find my car keys.

x3s