{"id":9874,"date":"2015-09-10T17:08:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T17:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musik.a-z-translation.com\/know-thy-idioms\/"},"modified":"2020-01-03T11:36:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T11:36:21","slug":"know-thy-idioms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/know-thy-idioms\/","title":{"rendered":"Know thy idioms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(c) http:\/\/www.contrabass.co.uk\/tourtemute.htm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I’m sure it has happened to the best of us: You’re in the middle of a heated discussion, or got your interpreting groove on, then suddenly there it is: an idiom pops into your head, you think, Perfect! I’ll use that! and use it…. incorrectly?!<\/p>\n

Christina DesMarais<\/a> has made a list of the 20 idioms most commonly used incorrectly<\/a> over at inc.com<\/a>. Any of them sound familiar?<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\nPerhaps not having grown up in an English-speaking country and always questioning where a certain phrase came from has saved me from messing up most of these idioms, however – I admit it freely -, there is one I said incorrectly for a long time, until a friend almost died laughing when he heard what I really said. And it’s not even on the list! Okay, here it is:
\nWhat I wanted to say was, That’s a moot point. What I actually said was, That’s a mute point.
\nWhile it sort of gets the point across (a point that can’t or doesn’t speak is, after all, irrelevant or not important), the definition of the correct term on dictionary.com<\/a> describes its origin and makes it oh-so-clear:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\nA<\/span> debatable<\/span> question,<\/span> an<\/span> issue<\/span> open<\/span> to<\/span> argument;<\/span> also,<\/span> an<\/span> irrelevant<\/span> question,<\/span> a<\/span> matter<\/span> of<\/span> no<\/span> importance.<\/span> For<\/span> example,<\/span> Whether<\/span> Shakespeare<\/span> actually<\/span> wrote<\/span> the<\/span> poem<\/span> remains<\/span> a<\/span> moot<\/span> point<\/span> among<\/span> critics<\/span><\/span>, or<\/span> It’s<\/span> a<\/span> moot<\/span> point<\/span> whether<\/span> the<\/span> chicken<\/span> or<\/span> the<\/span> egg<\/span> came<\/span> first<\/span><\/span>. This<\/span> term<\/span> originated<\/span> in<\/span> British<\/span> law<\/span> where<\/span> it<\/span> described<\/span> a<\/span> point<\/span> for<\/span> discussion<\/span> in<\/span> a<\/span> moot<\/span><\/span><\/i>, or<\/span> assembly,<\/span> of<\/span> law<\/span> students.<\/span> By<\/span> the<\/span> early<\/span> 1700s<\/span> it<\/span> was<\/span> being<\/span> used<\/span> more<\/span> loosely<\/span> in<\/span> the<\/span> present<\/span> sense.<\/span><\/i>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nmoot point. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage\u00ae Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer<\/i>. Houghton Mifflin Company. http:\/\/dictionary.reference.com\/browse\/moot point<\/a> (accessed: September 10, 2015)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, which idioms are you using incorrectly?<\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, dictionary.com also has an interesting and funny entry on Moot point vs. mute point<\/a> (and maybe even moo point).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(c) http:\/\/www.contrabass.co.uk\/tourtemute.htm I’m sure it has happened to the best of us: You’re in the middle of a heated discussion, or got your interpreting groove on, then suddenly there it is: an idiom pops into your head, you think, Perfect! I’ll use that! and use it…. incorrectly?! Christina DesMarais has made a list of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[623,90,624,625,626],"class_list":["post-9874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unkategorisiert","tag-bad-english","tag-english","tag-idioms","tag-moot-point","tag-mute-point","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10709,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874\/revisions\/10709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.a-z-translations.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}