IDIOMS VIII

February 20, 2020

As we dwell some more on idioms, we must, again, urge writers to beware of errors received from supposedly impeccable mentors, bosses or role models because many errors today are enduring legacies of such lexical avatars.

And idioms are some of their greatest victims. In simple terms, that is how many idioms have evolved and ossified into their widespread distorted forms as we encounter them everywhere we turn.

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We will make ourselves clearer still with a bizarre story of aping a supposedly infallible mentor. The fellow involved still insisted after a decade that his boss was right, even when the dictionary proved him wrong – all because his oga had long decreed undisputable errors to be exquisite knowledge.

Any surprise, then, that we have continued to see awkward twists as in the fresh set of idioms discussed below?

Not mince (your) words

That is the full English idiom, which has been freely appropriated, albeit wrongly, in:

Without mincing word, this culture cannot breed patriots in the people.

It is a faulty appropriation to say mincing word. The correct appropriation in the context of the statement is mincing words, not mincing word.

Never mind that the difference between the right and wrong is just the letter s dropped off in the faulty sentence. That small omission is a big difference, because the one with the s is acceptable, while the one without it is unacceptable, and it separates the tutored writer from the intuitive one.

To not mince (your) words is “to say something in a direct way even though it might offend other people” (“Pop” Errors). And here is the correct way to adopt it:

Without mincing WORDS, this culture cannot breed patriots in the people.

Line your (own)/somebody’s pockets

For whatever reasons, maybe inordinate creative liberty or sheer hubris or exhibitionism, some writers still distort this idiom as in the following statement:

Those in power see the positions they occupy as an avenue to enrich their pockets.

When you get too figurative, in the name of creative liberty, especially with idioms, which are themselves inherently figurative, you set up barriers to effective communication, just as you join the entrenchers and perpetuators of errors. “Pop” Errors says: ‘What they do is line their pockets.

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The writer’s adaptation is from the idiom line your (own)/somebody’s pockets, which is “to get richer or make somebody richer, especially by taking advantage of a situation or by being dishonest”’ So, here is the correct way to express the all too familiar remark about those in power:

 Those in power see the positions they occupy as an avenue to line their pockets.

Come into its (one’s) own

This one, come into its (one’s) own, looks rather arcane and perhaps too up-market. Then, we had better learn it whole-heartedly once and for all. First, take a hard look at the statement below 

God gave us freedom on a platter of gold so that we could come to ours within a few years

According to “Pop” Errors, “Come into our own is God’s design for us.” It therefore asks: “Father forgive them (the mutilators) for they do not know what they do.”

“Pop” Errors’ angst is understandable, because the full idiom so mangled in the statement is: come into its (one’s) own. The book explains that “It is used to describe a situation in which one or something has “become fully effective . . . or recognized” (Oxford Dictionary of English/AmazonKindle, as cited ibid.).

So, come to ours is alien and unacceptable. To convey the message correctly, using the idiom, it must go thus:

God gave us freedom on a platter of gold so that we could come into our own within a few years

See the light of day

Distortions of idioms tend to come in a great variety – in bogus re-configurations, misinterpretations, bombastic misapplications and so on. Such is the variety of distortion in the sentence below:

Many believe that the impeachment move may not see the light of the day.

“Pop” Errors says: ‘It is reports (NOT moves) that usually do not see the light of day. To see the light of day is “to begin to exist or to become publicly known about” (citing Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary).

If the message of the writer of the statement is that the impeachment move may not succeed, it is better to say so without using any idiom.

But if he must use an idiom at all cost, something like come to nothing or not come to anything may be more apt. To come to nothing or not come to anything is to be unsuccessful. Effortlessly, but with a greater communication effect, therefore, you could simply say:

‘Many believe that the impeachment move may not come to anything’

At somebody’s bidding

See what has been done to this idiom in the sentence below; hardly does the phrase obey the bidding in the statement bear any relationship with the original idiom from which it has presumably been adapted.

Between 1999 and 2007, it was obvious that only those who did not obey the bidding of the president during that administration were haunted by the anti-graft agencies.

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Clearly, the above sentence must be re-constructed, with the proper idiom re-set, particularly to make it sound “educated.” Do somebody’s bidding is the genuine idiom, and for it to suit the sentence at issue, re-construction should run thus:

Between 1999 and 2007, it was obvious that only those who did not do the bidding of the president during that administration were haunted by the anti-graft agencies.

To do somebody’s bidding, is “to obey somebody”. Though the writer gets the sense of the usage right, he distorts the expression itself.