Incorrect use of phrases, that annoy me and probably shouldn't

[jonny jeez]

Watched guy Martin last night, doing India. Good programme but by eck (see what I did there) he annoyed me in one scene.

So, no matter how smart you are, no matter how good a negotiator, dealer or quick thinker...you can never Barter a good deal.

Bartering isn't negotiation, it's swapping, like Noel Edmonds Saturday barter shop...its a vehicle of trade not a process of knocking someone down a bit.

Sure you can barter a sheep for a goat or a camel for my wife but you can't just barter someone to an agreeable price.

Please stop.

What you might want to do is HAGGLE, just ask that kind Mr Palin, Haggling is a smashing practice, undertaken with gusto in many cultures and is almost the law in others....but it's not Bartering.

Oh and while I'm at it, you can't *lend* something from someone. Sure you can lend it *to* them or borrow it *from* them but you can't have it both ways.

Arghh.

In the interests of balance and reduction in blood pressure, here's one that I always get wrong...actually I think we all get it wrong as I've never heard it any other way so perhaps it's just one of those daft Ol' English sayings that makes no sense...

"Cheap at half the price"...now what's that all about?

 

[ComedyPilot]

I suppose threads like this are an antidote to threads about homosexual vegetarians.

 

[Smokin Joe]

"Cheap at half the price"...now what's that all about?

It means it's over priced.

 

[jonny jeez]

It means it's over priced.

But it's never used in that context, people say " it was a bargain, cheap at half the price"

 

[robjh]

I can feel gotten coming on all over again

 

[Melvil]

Heard on radio 4 the other day (by James Naughtie, no less) the phrase "can you unpack - (i.e. explain) - that for me?"

I mean, really.

 

[Fnaar]

"Eeh, well I'll go to the foot of our stairs" (expressing surprise)... why not go somewhere altogether more surprising!

 

[Melvil]

And on a personal level - and this is not the misuse of words per se (more names) - my name is Stewart but nearly every bugger in a business or non-friend context misspells it as 'Stuart'.

Quite seriously annoying - in a very petty way.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

" Free Cash Withdrawals. " Now there's a thing!

 

[jefmcg]

Can I play?

Momentarily does not mean "in a moment" but "for a moment"

there. I feel better.

 

[Saluki]

'going ten to the dozen' annoys me.

Surely going only ten to the dozen means that you would be going slower than normal. I was always told that the phrase is 'Nineteen to the dozen'.

 

[andyfraser]

I may have this completely wrong and it might just be a pet hate but I feel people use "the fact that" wrongly. They definitely overuse it.

 

[andyfraser]

'going ten to the dozen' annoys me.

Surely going only ten to the dozen means that you would be going slower than normal. I was always told that the phrase is 'Nineteen to the dozen'.

I was always told it was "nineteen to the dozen" too.

 

[Aperitif]

"Eeh, well I'll go to the foot of our stairs" (expressing surprise)... why not go somewhere altogether more surprising!

Trust you to take the rise out of a serious thread, Fnaar. I should tread carefully when you string your words together if I were you - which, luckily, you're not.

 

[classic33]

" Free Cash Withdrawals. " Now there's a thing!

Being in the right place helps.