this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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Showerthoughts

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"Do you want to do this thing with me?"

"I'm down."

"I'm up for it."

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[–] Foggyfroggy 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] RGB3x3 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"I get knocked down! But I get up again! And you're never gonna keep me down!"

[–] justlookingfordragon 12 points 1 year ago

On the other hand,, "knocked down" and "knocked up" have drastically different meanings, which is a little confusing for foreigners sometimes. =P

[–] ThePantser 5 points 1 year ago

Pissing the night away is also a double entendre, meaning wasting time or literally pissing all night from drinking.

[–] RustyNova 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As a non native speaker, this messed me up for years

I always heard about "being up" for something, so I logically assumed that being down meant the inverse. Even more that "feeling down" usually means not being able to do things.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Not to confuse you more, but with your phrasing you are correct.

If you're up for it, or being up for something, you are interested. Similarly, if you're down for something, or you'd be down for it, you are interested.

But if you are feeling down, you are not up for it.

The former 2, the verb is the action of being ready.

In the latter, the verb is feeling and down is the state.

For example, despite me feeling down I'm down to go out and party tonight.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It’s not about the crest or the trough. It’s about the motion of the ocean baby.

Up and down are both disturbed, ya dig? It means the thing made an impression on you. Got under your skin, gave you the itch, it’s bugging you, eating at you, lighting a fire under your ass, putting you in the hot seat.

No more smooth sailing. Buy the ticket, take the ride, you know? Get this idea off the ground, get up and bounce. You know, jump around.

Get up, get up, and get down.

[–] leo85811nardo 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

"Hey you want some potato chips?"

  • "Potato chip sounds good" => Yes please
  • "I'm good" => No thanks

Messed me up all the time first time came to the US. Why use positive response for rejection?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

“I’m good” here means “My situation is good” means “I have what I need already”

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Saying no is hard in all languages

[–] helmet91 1 points 1 year ago

To me it usually goes like this:

"No."

Or sometimes:

"Nope."

Or when I'm feeling polite:

"No, thanks."

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It makes a little more sense with the context that “I’m down” is shortened slang for “I’ll throw down on that”, itself slang for “I will get in on this situation” (as in “throwing down” some money or chips when gambling)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I thought it is short for "I am putting myself down for that" or "put me down for that". As in, putting yourself down on a list for attending an event.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In the game of hell let loose you're constantly trying to build Garrison's for your team to spawn on, and destroy Garrison's so your enemy can't spawn.

Highly ambiguous

Garrison down on the point!

Does this mean a friendly Garrison was just built? Does this mean the enemy Garrison was just destroyed? Who knows! Why not both?

Schrödinger's Garrison

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

In my friend circle we will invite each other to stuff and ask "are you up or down?" Then schedule them regardless of response.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

In the late 80s, bad and good were the same thing!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

More recently, the difference between good and bad is in the presence or absence of the word “the” before “shit”.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is problem with Russian language.

это радио щит!

“I think he likes the radio”

“But we’ll never know!”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is true in 2014-2024 as well

[–] shalafi 2 points 1 year ago

… Tricks are for kids he plays much gigs

He's the big bad wolf and you're the three pigs

He's the big bad wolf in your neighborhood

Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good

Run DMC

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Similar to calling in sick and calling out sick.

[–] ThePantser 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because it's "calling in, sick" and "calling, out sick"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah when you call in Is you have the day off but want to work so you call into work

[–] MedicPigBabySaver 0 points 1 year ago

We "bang out", when using a sick day.

[–] Agent641 9 points 1 year ago

You can be cool and hot at the same time.

Ive learned that I can also be neither

[–] nandeEbisu 8 points 1 year ago

Get up, come on get down with the sickness

[–] blanketswithsmallpox 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Flammable. Inflammable. Famous. Infamous. So many dumb prefixes that make no sense.

There really needs to be more language revisions every couple decades to get rid of stupid shit or revise letters, words, and spellings to be more in tune with their phonetic pronunciations.

[–] blanketswithsmallpox 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

C / K / S. Remove X. Change letter names to match their sounds.

A / ugh / Ayyy.

B = Buh

C = Removed? It's just K or S in reality.

D - Dih

E - same?

Etc. etc. there's better linguists than an old school Grammar Nazi turned Language Darwinist.

I like the idea of removing upper and lower case letters too and changing their denotation with a new symbol, but I'd have to think longer about case studies or could be easily persuaded.

[–] overcast5348 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

C has some uses other than K/S. The usage in "ch"ess, for instance. We'll have to shoehorn some other letter here if C is eliminated.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or we may just reassign "c" to always sound "ch" since it's freed from other sounds, and save some ink, too 😉

[–] blanketswithsmallpox 2 points 1 year ago

Mmmm yeah that's that good shit.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They aren't dumb, peoples' usage is just poorly informed and incorrect.

Famous/infamous are not synonyms, so you shouldn't be using them interchangeably. Infamous specifically means "Famous for the wrong [read negative] reasons". Like a serial killer. Or somebody who is famous for knocking over and breaking a priceless work of art.

If something is flammable, it can be set on fire. Like wood, or paper. If something is inflammable, that's still true, but it has the additional property of being able to spontaneously combust, without being actively set alight. Like oils, or unstable chemicals, or some explosive material.

These are levels of nuance which are actually really useful, if handled correctly. The fundamental rule appears to be that in an "in..." word, the prefix gives specific detail about how the object holds the properties of the suffix.

[–] blanketswithsmallpox 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sounds like you just used the guardian's op ed which is just some random dudes opinion on how they should be used.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/flammable-or-inflammable

I was well aware of the famous infamous thing though.

Regardless, infamous should be 'not famous'. As in nobody has ever heard of this person. Not famous for evil lmfao.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The number of potential misunderstandings in English is why our language is the world favourite lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Because america does media gooder

[–] the_stat_man 4 points 1 year ago

You can cut a tree down and then cut that same tree up

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago
[–] kaktus 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is it just me or are people also using hands up instead of hands down? As in: this is hands down/up the best post I've read all day.

As a non English native this always throws me off.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Aussie chiming in: haven't heard hands up before, might be a US thing

[–] eliasar 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

US here, we use "hands down".

That is hands down the worst children's play I've ever seen.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I think some people are deliberately trying to fuck up intergenerational understanding by teaching weird or opposite versions of phrases and other cultural tokens

[–] idunnololz 2 points 1 year ago

I'm sideways.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

'Hot' and 'cool' can also mean similar things about a person.

[–] Everythingispenguins 1 points 1 year ago

Some day try to explain the meaning of the word cool to a non naive English speaker.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Father, I've been bad.

Mommy, I've been bad.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mother’s gonna keep baby cozy and warm

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oooh baby, ooh baby, ooh baby

[–] LemmyKnowsBest 1 points 1 year ago

The first time somebody told me he was down I had to pause and wonder what he meant. Did he mean he was sad? Did he mean he didn't want to do the thing?