Smart questions
Smart answers
Smart people
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS

Member Login
Remember Me
Forgot Password?
Join Us!

Come Join Us!

Are you a
Computer / IT professional?
Join Tek-Tips now!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
Join Tek-Tips
*Tek-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

LINK TO THIS FORUM!

Add Stickiness To Your Site By Linking To This Professionally Managed Technical Forum.
Just copy and paste the
code below into your site.

Tek-Tips LinkedIn® Group

Partner With Us!

"Best Of Breed" Forums Add Stickiness To Your Site
Partner Button
(Download This Button Today!)

Feedback

"...I have tons of books, have book marked tons of tutorials, which have helped, but this forum has answered those "impossible to find" solutions. I am thrilled with this site..."
More...

Geography

Where in the world do Tek-Tips members come from?
Click Here To Find Out!

Tek-Tips Shirts!

Get Tek-Tips Swag
Get your
Tek-Tips Forums
SWAG here!
Home > Forums > Member Moderated > Tek-Tips Groups > Making an Impression Forum

Words don't always mean you think. Or do they?

thread1256-881608
Read More Threads Like This One
Skullmeister (TechnicalUser)
15 Jul 04 23:23
Why do we park in the driveway, and drive on the parkway?

If drivers speed on the highway, do stockcar drivers get high on the speedway?
ESquared (Programmer)
16 Jul 04 0:42
Why do they call them apartments when they're so close together?

How come we send cargo by ship and shipments by truck?

How can you possibly "raze" something to the ground? Oh wait, I see... you burnt it up and you burnt it down!
sha76 (Programmer)
16 Jul 04 5:50
Doesn't raze come from the same root as razor?  It's when it's wriiten "raise to the ground" that I find it makes no sense.

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert
sha76 (Programmer)
16 Jul 04 5:50
Oops, bad forum for a typo!  Yes, I did mean written!

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert
SF0751 (MIS)
16 Jul 04 8:41
Why does your nose run and your feet smell?
How can you "draw a blank"?
Why are there Interstate Highways in Hawaii?
Why isn't "palindrome" spelled the same way backwards?

Susan
Gramen artificiosum odi.

SteveGlo (Programmer)
16 Jul 04 8:48
How about impregnable - 2 completely opposite meanings ?
BJCooperIT (Programmer)
16 Jul 04 9:01
When you no longer have any, how can you say "I ran out"?

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~George Bernard Shaw
Systems Project Analyst/Custom Forms & PL/SQL - Oracle/Windows
sleipnir214 (Programmer)
19 Jul 04 20:35
BJCooperIT:
Maybe you ran out to get some more?


Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!
KornGeek (Programmer)
5 Aug 04 15:03
Why are flammable and inflammable synonyms?

What about the word "presently" which can either mean "right now" or "soon"?

Why isn't phoentic spelled like it sounds?
jwenting (Programmer)
6 Aug 04 4:49

Quote:

Why do we park in the driveway, and drive on the parkway?

I have answered this before elsewhere.
It's very simple, the average speed during rush hour on the parkway is close enough to 0 as to be considered 0 meaning you're effectively parked there.
That makes the average speed on your driveway (which you have to drive onto and away from) higher :)
LesleyW (Programmer)
6 Aug 04 7:20
Oh oh Oohh, I know one!

Jwenting's post has reminded me of one that intrigues me every day...

Why do we call it the rush hour?  slow hour would be more like it . . .
SQLSister (Programmer)
6 Aug 04 11:38
Around here it would be the slow hours because they last from 6:00 to 9:00 in the morning and 3:30 to 6:30 at night.

Questions about posting. See FAQ183-874
GwydionM (Programmer)
6 Aug 04 14:33
In the British and American armed forces, a Major is two grades above a Lietenant.  And a Major-General is one grade below a Lietenant-General.

(This actually comes from accidents of naming during the English Civil War, with 'Major' being used inconsistently for many different roles.)

------------------
A view from the UK
GwydionM (Programmer)
6 Aug 04 14:43
In Britain, a Public School is a fee-paying school ratehr than a school run by a public authority.  

CODE


Which actually means it is subject to outside supervision.  George Orwell's A Clergyman's Daughter includes a lot about the extinct third sector, Private Schools which anyone was allowed to start and no one could check or grade.

The above gives a possible explanation, if you want to highlight it.  (See Wordplay for an explanation of how it's done

------------------
A view from the UK
sleipnir214 (Programmer)
6 Aug 04 15:32
GwydionM:
There's also the fact that the rank of Major General was at one time called Sergeant Major General.


Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!
spayne (Programmer)
6 Aug 04 16:25
I've always wondered why the word "monosyllabic" has so many syllables.
ChrisHunt (Programmer)
9 Aug 04 7:25
The late lamented Screaming Lord Sutch used to ask:

Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?

-- Chris Hunt
http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk
http://www.napitalia.org.uk
http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk
PortyMan (Programmer)
11 Aug 04 9:59
Actually, GwydionM, in Scotland the term 'Private School' is used to mean a private (fee-paying) school and 'state' is used to refer to the state-run schools. Though the term 'Public School' is not unknown - we are very clsoe to England, after all!

What I'd really like to know is, why is 'dyslexia' so hard to spell?
gwog (TechnicalUser)
13 Aug 04 12:24
I've always said we have the best parking lots in the world - they are called highways.
donbott (TechnicalUser)
13 Aug 04 13:16
Ok, has anyone ever felt gruntled?


DonBott

take two of these and call me in the morning
PeasNCarrots (Programmer)
13 Aug 04 13:24
How about when people say, "It's always in the last place I look" when they are looking for something.
sleipnir214 (Programmer)
13 Aug 04 13:25
No, though I have been underwhelmed.  Actually, I have never felt gruntled, but have have actually gruntled, I guess.


from YourDictionary.com:
[ dis- + gruntle, to grumble (from Middle English gruntelen, frequentative of grunten, to grunt; see grunt).]
medic (Programmer)
13 Aug 04 13:31
Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
Zathras (Programmer)
13 Aug 04 18:28
Just to be contrary...

Actually, its infantry that infants don't enjoy.  Especially when they are drafted before they are old enough to vote.

Also, I sometimes do keep looking after I found what I was looking for in case there is a newer, improved or cheaper model available.
jerryreeve (Vendor)
31 Aug 04 13:40
GwydionM,

Why did we always do a general clean-up for an inspection by a Major, but a major clean-up when the General was coming by?

While I was in the military and the whole family was being moved the cargo was shipped by truck.

Zathras,
I have never been able to find the "Older, Plain, More expensive" item advertised.

correct that: Antiques

If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.

JerryReeve
Communications Systems Int'l
com-sys.com
Read More Threads Like This One

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Tek-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Tek-Tips and talk with other members!

Back To Forum

Back To Making an Impression

Close Box

Join Tek-Tips® Today!

Join your peers on the Internet's largest technical computer professional community.
It's easy to join and it's free.

Here's Why Members Love Tek-Tips Forums:

Register now while it's still free!

Already a member? Close this window and log in.

Join Us             Close