On our way back from the gym today (Thursday) we were driving along behind a van with the company name, "The Proof is in the Pudding". This initiated a rant from Nik which I have never known to happen before and it was hilarious! I warned him at the time I was going to blog about it but he still kept going!
He quite rightly points out that that is not a saying (assuming they were trying to use the proverb as their company name) "why do people say that?! It's the proof of the pudding is in the eating. There's no proof in the actual pudding! It's like saying there's proof in the cake!" It is interesting how much the proverb has managed to change into a sentence which doesn't actually make any sense.
This is of course all quite true but you have to understand my husband is the opposite of me, he rarely gets ruffled and is one of those annoying so laid back he's horizontal people (which works well considering I'm a bit more manic!) and I've never heard him have this kind of rant. It was hilarious and lasted at least another 5 minutes of our journey! Even when mentioning just now that I was writing about it, he started again and says it's been something that's been bothering him for a while! Of all the things to be bothered about, hehe. He wanted me to make sure I did some on-line research on it so here we go...
The urban dictionary states...
And also lists similar mistakes which I'm now thinking of muttering one day just to have some fun and see if it instigates another rant from hubby ;)
Here is a good explanation of when the saying started going wrong and what the original proverb actually means.
I also found this brilliant video of a German man who is understandably very upset when he hears the incorrect version of the saying which makes no sense. "Just put the proof on the table!" Hehee.
He quite rightly points out that that is not a saying (assuming they were trying to use the proverb as their company name) "why do people say that?! It's the proof of the pudding is in the eating. There's no proof in the actual pudding! It's like saying there's proof in the cake!" It is interesting how much the proverb has managed to change into a sentence which doesn't actually make any sense.
This is of course all quite true but you have to understand my husband is the opposite of me, he rarely gets ruffled and is one of those annoying so laid back he's horizontal people (which works well considering I'm a bit more manic!) and I've never heard him have this kind of rant. It was hilarious and lasted at least another 5 minutes of our journey! Even when mentioning just now that I was writing about it, he started again and says it's been something that's been bothering him for a while! Of all the things to be bothered about, hehe. He wanted me to make sure I did some on-line research on it so here we go...
The urban dictionary states...
A phrase that, when uttered, instantly identifies the speaker as being incredibly stupid and illiterate.
The original saying is "the proof of the pudding is in the eating", basically meaning that something has to be experienced/utilized in order to prove how good it is.
This phrase got messed up by idiots who don't quite understand what they are saying.
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And also lists similar mistakes which I'm now thinking of muttering one day just to have some fun and see if it instigates another rant from hubby ;)
Similar mistakes include could care less (couldn't care less), stop running around with your chicken cut off (stop running around like a chicken with its head cut off), begs the question (raises the question),here here (hear hear), and all that glitters is gold (all that glitters/glisters is not gold - "glisters" is used in the original Shakespeare quote)
Here is a good explanation of when the saying started going wrong and what the original proverb actually means.
The proverb is ancient — it has been traced back to 1300 and was popularised by Cervantes in his Don Quixote of 1605. It’s sad that it has lasted so long, only to be corrupted in modern times.
There is even a blog called Proof is in the Pudding which is full of equations and such like, but no puddings.
At least I found one company who did use it correctly and their puddings do look delicious!!
4 comments:
Right, I don't WANT to stop reading your blog but as I doubt there will EVER be a post that I enjoy more than this one - I'm in a conundrum. I am SO with Nik on this... I get worked up about this kind of thing all the time. Amazing. xxxx
I'm terrible. I get so mad when other people say stupid things but then I'm a scatterbrain and ALWAYS get sayings and proverbs wrong.
I also find that very annoying. But I rant a lot about a lot of things and I make many typing errors so I probably have not got a leg to stand on with this.
Ha, this is brilliant!
Gareth cannot stop himself from correcting people who use less/fewer incorrectly, for some reason it really winds him up. I'm even worse though, I used to work as a proof-reader and I can't help spotting things everywhere. I once spent over half of a 3 hour car journey ranting angrily about a typo I;d seen in an advert at a service station. I mean, how hard can it be to proof-read an advert that you're putting out nationally?! I'm really still not over it.
K x
PS: The german guy is hilarious! He's made a load of other videos too, a particular favourite is his response to "shoot the shit"
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