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[–] 106 points 2 years 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.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 60 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I guess fat chance is said sarcastically.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I've never not heard it said sarcastically.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years 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.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 6 points 2 years 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.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years 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.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 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.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years 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.

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  • [+] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You can make profit on and profit off

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yup. And one means it via sarcasm.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago

    one is just said sarcastically

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    Fun fact: awful and awesome used to be synonyms

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

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

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

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years 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.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

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

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago
    [+] -25 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Not when you have a slim Jim

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