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jscari@lemmy.world to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world · 2 years ago

A fat chance and a slim chance are the same thing

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A fat chance and a slim chance are the same thing

jscari@lemmy.world to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world · 2 years ago
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  • Strayce
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    2 years ago

    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.

    • Chriszz@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      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.

      • Strayce
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        2 years ago

        I feel like you’re technically correct, but saying “fill a form” just sounds weird to a native English speaker.

    • s1ndr0m3@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      The alarm went off, so I turned it off.

    • ezures@lemmy.wtf
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      2 years ago

      Also try this inflammable table with flammable chairs.

      • The Ramen Dutchman@ttrpg.network
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        2 years ago

        I hate this one, it confuses Dutch people from time to time, so they think “inflammable” means “fire resistant”.

        Extra scary when there’s only an English-language warning on this

    • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      Don’t forget you might already be in the right place and don’t need to go up or down. Then you can say you’re “there for something”

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.ca
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    2 years ago

    I guess fat chance is said sarcastically.

    • seitanic
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      2 years ago

      I’ve never not heard it said sarcastically.

      • Strayce
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        2 years ago

        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.

        • CubbyTustard@reddthat.com
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          deleted by creator

          • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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            2 years ago

            Schizo and psycho are a bit different, because they involve shortening the words.

        • thisbenzingring
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          2 years ago

          Semantic satiation?

          • Firefly7@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            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.

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              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.

            • hemmes@sh.itjust.works
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              2 years ago

              Row•ads, that is a freaky word

      • GarytheSnail@programming.dev
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        2 years ago

        There’s a fat chance you’re gonna be eating those words.

      • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world
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        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.

        • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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          2 years ago

          You think “could care less” is actually legit? Fat chance!

          • hemmes@sh.itjust.works
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            2 years ago

            You think it isn’t? Slim chance!

        • Nekobambam@lemmy.world
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          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.

        • Markofthedead@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          deleted by creator

          • cmhickman358@thelemmy.club
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            2 years ago

            I’m never quite sure what it says about me that I find David Mitchell the most relatable person on television.

          • PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocksB
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            2 years ago

            Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/om7O0MFkmpw?si=qFPV-jWn2VSDZXru

            Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

            I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.

        • topscientist@lemmynsfw.com
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          With you 100%

        • thisbenzingring
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          I only down voted you, so you’d be right 👍

  • confluence@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    You can make profit on and profit off

    • andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun
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      I could build on your point or build off of it.

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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        But if you’re hardly working, you’re not working hard.

    • EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works
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      Alarms can go off and be turned off

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    Yup. And one means it via sarcasm.

    • Synthead@lemmy.world
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      Yeah, with this argument, “excellent” and “terrible” means the same thing.

  • darcy@sh.itjust.works
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    one is just said sarcastically

  • lugal@sopuli.xyz
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    Fun fact: awful and awesome used to be synonyms

  • moistclump@lemmy.world
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    Antiautonyms! https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/antiauto.html

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

  • Cableferret@lemmy.tf
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    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.

  • Suspicious@lemmy.wtf
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    Fat chance is a sarcastic phrase, so they don’t actually have the same literal meaning

  • TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee
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    https://johnsonenglishdhs.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/1/5/121524970/english_is_a_crazy_language_full_text.pdf

  • PrettyBlackDress@lemdit.com
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    Not when you have a slim Jim

    • swab148@lemm.ee
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      I tried eating a Fat Jim but then I got banned from Grindr

      • PrettyBlackDress@lemdit.com
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        🤣

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