Settle an old debate

sterculelum

After much argument, I'll ask here.

When saying "Oh, we'll take things as they come", is the phrase "Play it by year" or "Play it by ear". I know the latter applies when talking about music, but I always thought it was "year" when you're talking about events and stuff.

I was shocked to think anyone thought otherwise, and it seems most people do. Are they all wrong?

aidan_walsh

It's "ear".

sterculelum

I beg to differ. If it's "year", then it's like a pun on "play it by ear" because it's time based and stuff. I'm nearly sure I heard it for years.

On the same note, is it "commoner gardener" or "common or garden", as in "mediocre"? I saw the second one written a while ago and was like wtf??

Guy:Incognito

ear. (no Y)

Common or garden (no ER)

Alkers

aidan_walsh wrote:

It's "ear".

+1

sterculelum

Well I'll be...

I'm still going to campaign for the next generation to change to "year". It's cleverer, if anything.

simu

lol

For years I thought it was "cardinal copy", not "carbon copy"!

Talliesin

sterculelum wrote:

Well I'll be...

I'm still going to campaign for the next generation to change to "year". It's cleverer, if anything.

Yes. Your random gibberish is much better than the clearly understood analogy in common usage.

You lost the game at trying to convince us you believed this and believed the phrase was "commoner gardener". You should have just stuck with one funny story, but you got greedy.

Saruman

Different people hear different things Look at music! I have missheard so many lyrics. Mostly Michael Jackson ones such as "Dont go around breaking little girls hearts" i still hear sometimes as "Dont go around making little girls hot"

Also from Billy Jean... "she's just a girl that thinks that i am the one, but the kid is not my son" I hear as "she's just a girl that thinks that i am the one, Be jealous not my son"

shamblertine

I always thought it was year too. It just makes more sense to me. Play it by year /ear is taken to mean we'll take things as they come or we'll deal with things when they happen etc. Year is a period of time which makes sense for this meaning, ear is just a body part which doesn't make sense

Silverfish

Play it by Ear

brianthebard

shamblertine wrote:

I always thought it was year too. It just makes more sense to me. Play it by year /ear is taken to mean we'll take things as they come or we'll deal with things when they happen etc. Year is a period of time which makes sense for this meaning, ear is just a body part which doesn't make sense

Well if you take a second to think about it, and realise that "play it by ear" refers to musicians picking up a tune without looking at the notation, but listening to it and then "Playing it by ear", then it will probably start to make some sense...

sterculelum

Talliesin wrote:

Yes. Your random gibberish is much better than the clearly understood analogy in common usage.

You lost the game at trying to convince us you believed this and believed the phrase was "commoner gardener". You should have just stuck with one funny story, but you got greedy.

No I swear to God. I thought "commoner gardener" meant like "even the gardener would use it"... That's the truth. It never occurred to me it might be something else. I'll concede defeat on that one, but not "year".

super_furry

It's ear and common or garden.

tSubh Dearg

It's "play it by ear" refering to improvising music, just playing along with other musicians.

"common or garden" is the other. A sentence with it would be "it's your common or garden snail rather than one of your fancy exotic ones."

Steven

Idiom: play it by ear

colloq
To act without a fixed plan, according to the situation that arises.

It came about from musicians attempting to play along with songs without knowing them or having sheet music. It is not "year".

Talliesin

sterculelum wrote:

No I swear to God. I thought "commoner gardener" meant like "even the gardener would use it"... That's the truth. It never occurred to me it might be something else.

Compare with "garden variety". Gardeners aren't particularly common in that sense of the word (I could go all day and not see a single gardener).

sterculelum wrote:

I'll concede defeat on that one, but not "year".

I prefer the traditional version that makes sense.

Pherekydes

sterculelum wrote:

After much argument, I'll ask here.

When saying "Oh, we'll take things as they come", is the phrase "Play it by year" or "Play it by ear". I know the latter applies when talking about music, but I always thought it was "year" when you're talking about events and stuff.

I was shocked to think anyone thought otherwise, and it seems most people do. Are they all wrong?

Ok, Mrs Malaprop, is it 'window sill' or 'window still'?

Futureman

Slow coach wrote:

Ok, Mrs Malaprop, is it 'window sill' or 'window still'?

Sill.

And it's "I couldn't care less".

connundrum

Slow coach wrote:

'window sill'

Noun: Get off that window sill or I'll beat you with yonder stick.

Slow coach wrote:

'window still'

Noun: Still, as in photography terms. Look at this window still I took earlier.

And its 'ear'.

Terry

Futureman wrote:

Sill.

And it's "I couldn't care less".

Have you seen the Spell Czechs forum?

Futureman

Terry wrote:

Have you seen the Spell Czechs forum?

??? hey?

I wasn't correcting anyone - I was adding another 'common misconception' into the topic!

And I seem to be banned from that forum you posted - wierd, since I've never been on it before!

Pherekydes

It's a private forum, futureman. And we need new talent like yourself.

And thanks for spoiling the 'window sill/still' poser for the OP. I wanted to check something out...

Talliesin

Slow coach wrote:

Ok, Mrs Malaprop,

They moved from malaprop to mumpsimus at their second post.

connundrum

Slow coach wrote:

I wanted to check something out...

5starpool

I have never heard the phrase 'Common or Garden'. Is it a Dublinism?

On another note when I was young (around 6 and under) I used to think it was 'Pleased to meet you' instead of 'Peace be with you' whne the hand shaking started at mass. Made sense to me at the time. Still does actually.

biko

The phrase by ear goes back a long way in a figurative sense. It’s a metonym, the substitution of a word by another with which it is closely associated.

It’s in much the same style as Antony’s speech in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”. He meant this figuratively, asking his audience to lend him the thing their ears contained, their function — in other words to listen to him, to hear him out. In phrases like by ear the process is taken one stage further: not merely the function of hearing but also being able to accurately reproduce a melody one has heard, without needing written music. So we have phrases like he has a good ear for music and she can play anything by ear.

The saying has been taken yet another step further away from anything literal when people use it to mean doing something in an extempore way, without planning, according to circumstances as they arise.

Pherekydes

connundrum wrote:

Ok, ok, I wanted to have a good laugh at the OP's expense. I'm a sadist, but I thought he was trolling.

brianthebard

5starpool wrote:

I have never heard the phrase 'Common or Garden'. Is it a Dublinism?

On another note when I was young (around 6 and under) I used to think it was 'Pleased to meet you' instead of 'Peace be with you' whne the hand shaking started at mass. Made sense to me at the time. Still does actually.

Not its definitely not an Dublin phrase, its predominantly British though, I rarely hear Irish people in general use it tbh.

Lolz @please to meet you. A couple of times when I wasn't paying attention and getting communion I have said "Thanks" instead of "Amen".
I'm such a rebel.

biko

I say commoner all the time "Look at the commoners they let in here. Sharon, let's go!"

Giblet

This is nearly as bad as someone saying "For all intensive purposes!"

Another one that is misconstrued by EVERYBODY is "Card Sharp" which is interpreted as "Card Shark" because of the similarity between that and "Pool Shark".

Seeing as we're all in agreement with "play it by ear" and "common or garden", i've had a row with a girl I know about whether the kids at the end of this ad are saying "Ohhhh, they're tired" or "Overtired".

It's so painfully obvious to me that it's the former. If it was "overtired" why the long drawn out "ohhhhhh" part?

BTW, when i was younger, i thought the Mars bar slogan on the ads was.....
"...helps you work less than play". Meaning that playful, active people eat mars bars. I was devastated when i found out the truth.

simu

brianthebard wrote:

Lolz @please to meet you. A couple of times when I wasn't paying attention and getting communion I have said "Thanks" instead of "Amen".
I'm such a rebel.

roffs

At least it wasn't cheers mate!


And that ad with the kids - it's overtired imhoe

those kids are creepy though

Giblet

Here's a bad one. In Mario 64, my friend was convinced that when you started a level, Mario said "Let's pickle" instead of a bad italian "Let's a-go"

nesf

Giblet wrote:

This is nearly as bad as someone saying "For all intensive purposes!"

That one is particularly painful alright.

brianthebard

Giblet wrote:

Here's a bad one. In Mario 64, my friend was convinced that when you started a level, Mario said "Let's pickle" instead of a bad italian "Let's a-go"

Pfft, all nintendo voices suck. Street fighter was unintentionally hilarious when listening to the voices and trying to interpret what the characters said;

Ryu; Attack that Veruca!

Sagat; Tiger Biker Uppercut!

There are plenty others I can't think of right now...

When i was younger, i thought they were:

Ken: Rack-jack-baroooo-jack
Sagat: Cyber-Rubberduck

BigCon

Why do a lot of Dublin people say "pacifically" when they mean "specifically" ? ?

RobertFoster

Futureman wrote:

And it's "I couldn't care less".

Exactly! "I could care less" really annoys me.

Giblet

BigCon wrote:

Why do a lot of Dublin people say "pacifically" when they mean "specifically" ? ?

The same reason you say "wan" instead of "one".

il gatto

It's "play it by ear" specifically coming from the way musicians intepret what they're hearing and simulate on an instrument without notation. i.e. most guitarists (including myself).
"Common or garden" comes from a term relating to plants and occasionally animals/birds which are the usual ones you would come across in your garden. For example, a wild daffodil as opposed to a specially bred hybrid with strange colouration. The regular flower would be referred to as "Common, or garden variety."(note comma)

Giblet

Giblet wrote:

This is nearly as bad as someone saying "For all intensive purposes!"

I hate that and it's far too common!

cjt156

Those kids say "Overtired" in their ugly Yorkshire accents.
My favourite; irregardless. Ooohh, listen to you and your fancy-schmancy book-learnin'

humanji

I'm pretty sure "I could care less" and "I couldn't care less" are both correct and both eqaully common in use. Even though "I couldn't care less" logically doesn't make sense, it's basically sarcasm. I apparently comes from the dry upper class british wit, that uses a lot of self-deprivating and sarcastic remarks. (the way I think of it is "I could care less, but I'm not going to be bothered to" meaning they're not worth thinking about). And this proves that my years of watching Countdown were not a waste!

Also, "You can't have your cake and eat it." Yes you can! The actual phrase is "You can't eat you cake and have it". (I heard that one on Joe Duffy).

themole

Deleted User wrote:

Another one that is misconstrued by EVERYBODY is "Card Sharp" which is interpreted as "Card Shark" because of the similarity between that and "Pool Shark".

Card Shark and Card Sharp are two different phrases.

Form OED, Shark: to shark on or upon: to prey like a shark upon; to victimize, sponge upon, swindle; to oppress by extortion. Obs.

Also from OED, Sharp: a. To cheat, swindle, trick (a person).

In relation to poker wikipedia has this to say: A card shark is an expert card game player who feasts on weaker "fish" players. A card shark is different from a card sharp, who uses deception for purposes of either card tricks or to cheat at a game like poker.

bmaxi

cjt156 wrote:

.
irregardless.

One of my pet hates, I have to say. No offence.

Steven

"I couldn't care less" is not sarcasm. It is literally stating that you couldn't care less.

And "deprivating" is not a word. You are thinking of "self-deprecating", meaning "to undervalue oneself and one's abilities".

Also, those kids are probably saying "Ohhh, they're tired" in their thick accents, although I can be no more certain on that than anyone else, aside from the script writers and the kids in question.

homerjk

Steven wrote:

Also, those kids are probably saying "Ohhh, they're tired" in their thick accents, although I can be no more certain on that than anyone else, aside from the script writers and the kids in question.

I agree, surely they say Ohhh, they're tired. Is there even such a word as overtired. (I know someone is about to post a link pointing me to a definition of overtired!)

I've never in my life heard anyone say they were overtired. I mean, how could one be overtired? Surely when you are tired you are feeling weak and want to rest, so what the hell could overtired mean? You are so tired you come back around to not being tired anymore?!
Guffaw, I say.

Steven

bmaxi wrote:

One of my pet hates, I have to say. No offence.

Actually I'm pretty sure he was listing it as one of his pet-hates.

homerjk wrote:

Is there even such a word as overtired.

Verb 1. overtire - tire excessively

bmaxi

Steven wrote:

Actually I'm pretty sure he was listing it as one of his pet-hates.

Touche

Gyalist

"I could care less" is the American version of "I couldn't care less" and it's unfortunately gaining currency on this side of the pond. That phrase causes heated discussions when it's used in alt.usage.english on Usenet