English language

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England .
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends
And get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?
And if people from Poland are called Poles
Then people from Holland should be Holes

Extracto de Richard Lederer

 

Dear Luciano21,


Very good!

And what about these curious words and phrases?

At the drop of a hat
to describe something that happens quickly, without fuss or preamble.

Bob’s your uncle,
acquired today’s handy expression for cause and effect.

(You can’t have your) cake and eat it
to describe (perhaps a touch enviously) those who could behave with piety on Sundays and with merciless venality for the rest of the week..

Dressed to the nines
making oneself look as pleasing as possible to the beholder.

Gets my goat

It’s said that “goat” is short for goatee, as in beard – and anyone who’s been grabbed by the beard is highly likely to be annoyed.

Hair of the dog

It had been extended to the belief that a hangover could be cured by drinking more the next morning. Medicine for a disease comes from what causes it.

I should cocoa
meaning “I should say so”.

And so on…


With my congratulations, a big and fraternal hug,

Ulpiano