Showerthoughts @lemmy.world jscari @lemmy.world 11 mo. ago

A fat chance and a slim chance are the same thing

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I guess fat chance is said sarcastically.
- I've never not heard it said sarcastically.
  
  There are words and phrases in English that get used sarcastically so often they lose their original meaning. There is a word for this and I swear I've seen a whole list somewhere but my google fu is weak today.
  
  Permanently Deleted
  
  Schizo and psycho are a bit different, because they involve shortening the words.
  
  Semantic satiation?
  
  No - semantic satiation is when you read or hear a word so much in a short timeframe that it stops feeling like a real word, and briefly feels like just a jumble of letters/sounds.
  
  I hate semantic satiation. It happens all the time while programming for me. I'll have a variable name with some common word and, after typing it a few times my brain just stops recognizing it as a real word. This sometimes sends me into etymology dives to figure out why the word "jump" (or whatever) looks so strange.
  
  Row•ads, that is a freaky word
  
  There's a fat chance you're gonna be eating those words.
  
  Now, I expect to be down voted.
  
  I don't care, but I'm going to piss a lot of people off.
  
  I say "I could care less".
  
  That's sarcasm. It's what my nineties, heroin chic, grunge music adolescence gave me.
  
  I could care less. It would just require that I make an effort. That's not caring less. That's caring about something.
  
  It's like how the biggest homophobes always seem to be closeted. They care too much.
  
  You think "could care less" is actually legit? Fat chance!
  
  You think it isn’t? Slim chance!
  
  I remember we used to say “like I could care less” sarcastically back in the late 80s. I moved to a non-English speaking country in ‘89 so I have no idea when “I could care less” shifted from sarcasm to incorrect grammar, but I was surprised the first time I encountered people online mention it as a grammatical pet peeve.
  
  With you 100%
  
  The queen would like a word ☺️
  
  I'm never quite sure what it says about me that I find David Mitchell the most relatable person on television.
  
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  I only down voted you, so you'd be right 👍

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