Plaidophile: Get your idioms right!

November 12, 2005

Get your idioms right! (rant)

by fluffy at 01:57 PM

It's "Without further ado," not "without further adieu."

"Ado" means "fuss" or "delay." "Adieu" is not a noun but a complete statement which simply means "goodbye."

Why have I been seeing "without further adieu" on weblogs so often lately? It's stupid and wrong and makes no sense in any way! (Unless you're trying to cut a goodbye short.)

Comments

#6702 11/12/2005 07:12 pm Of course it's wrong

It's wrong on purpose. A pun of sorts.

Personally, I love making those sorts of mixed metaphors and horrid euphemisms.

Don't jump to contusions.

We'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

A day late and a dog hair short.

#6703

11/12/2005 09:23 pm

For all intensive purposes.

(twitch)

#6704 11/12/2005 09:36 pm

Except I'm pretty sure the people making these bad strained demi-puns don't realize they are.

I like "for all intensive purposes" out of sheer irony, but that actually makes some level of sense.

I also like to burn bridges after I cross them. But again, that still makes sense.

But "without further adieu" makes no sense, except in very specific purposes.

#6705

11/13/2005 12:25 am

"Water under the dam", or "water over the bridge".

"Let's nibble this in the butt."

"...know it like the back of his head."

"Killing two birds for the price of one."

"I don't want to sound like a dead horse."

-- excerpts from http://rinkworks.com/said/words.shtml

#6707

11/13/2005 09:35 am Shackspeer said it best

This is "much adieu about nothing".

#6708

11/13/2005 09:37 am Oh

My favorite improper idiom is "Rome wasn't burnt in a day".

#6711

11/13/2005 11:18 am

Oh, and I think we should all tow the line on this issue. Smile

#6712 11/13/2005 11:22 am

Get your ducks in a rho.

#6713 11/13/2005 11:23 am

It's an eggcorn.

#6714 11/13/2005 11:27 am

Yep, I'd found that page, and found their justification to be extremely weak, since basically they cited the ONE TIME that it was a sensible pun and implied that it'd actually make sense in other situations. Which it doesn't.

#6716 11/13/2005 05:54 pm I always thought

"without further ado" should be "without further saying adieu", ie "let's get to it".

Not really an idom, but I like:"Let's shall"

#6721 11/14/2005 10:07 am Weirder than that, actually

"Adieu" is French - à Dieu, "to God" - a shortening of the phrase "Go with God", used as "Goodbye".

Making "without further adieu" even weirder. Without further to God?

I'm torn. I'm in favor of less God, but against nonsequiturs. Razz

(PS: Your tongue-sticking-out smiley does not look like it's sticking out its tongue.)

#6722 11/14/2005 11:47 am

#6909 01/01/2006 01:12 am

ALSO IT IS "PRIMA DONNA" NOT "PRE-MADONNA"

WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE

#6920 01/05/2006 02:44 pm

ALSO IT IS "PRIMA DONNA" NOT "PRE-MADONNA"

WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE

Literacy, absence of.

#7105 02/28/2006 12:36 pm

I haven't posted, or even read this blog in a while, but just catching up today.

I don't usually like to resurrect old topics like this, but improper use of terms really gets my goat, so to speak.

I think whatever malfunctioning verbal mechanism responsible for people messing up use of TWO/TO/TOO, THEY'RE/THEIR/THERE, HERE/HEAR, THEN/THAN, and so on, is the same one responsible for people butchering idioms and such.

#8983 Anonymous 04/17/2007 02:13 pm Re: Weirder than that, actually

your an ugly butt no you are you are so sexy thank you Mad

#8984 04/17/2007 03:42 pm

Google must have boosted my pagerank again.

#9178 John S (unregistered) 05/20/2007 03:34 am without further adieu

Because if you spell "ado" incorrectly and use google to correct your spelling it gives you "adieu". Google also lists this blog entry highly, so actaully you are contributing to the problem.

#9179 05/20/2007 01:28 pm

Er, I would have thought that by having such a highly-ranked page about the problem telling people that it is a problem, I'd be contributing to the solution. Why else would people be Googling it, anyway?

Plus, how the hell do you misspell "ado?"

#9209 buzzhunter (unregistered) 05/23/2007 08:23 am Part of the solution

You contributed to my solution. I realized the problem after googling this when I thought adieu looked stupid.

#9478 Steve (unregistered) 07/17/2007 11:58 pm Re: Part of the solution

buzzhunter:

You contributed to my solution. I realized the problem after googling this when I thought adieu looked stupid.

I had to look it up too--and I'm an English teacher! I've heard so many people mispronounce it that I did a double take. "Without further adieu..." just doesn't look right on paper though. Good thing for literacy.

Hey I blogged a similar topic (on English errors) a while back. Your readers might enjoy the post. Can't post links, so google the following:

d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y-to-die-for-literally/

Steve

#9479 07/18/2007 12:06 am

I was getting a lot of spammy links so I made it so that you have to register to post links of any kind. But here is the link you were referring to: http://realityonastick.wordpress.com/2007/04/03/d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y-to-die-for-literally/

There's actually plenty of weblogs which chronicle a lot of these things. Hopefully someday the Internet will reach some sort of critical mass when people actually know basic grammar innately and it will all be very zen.

#9801 Canuck (unregistered) 09/16/2007 12:05 pm is it just Michiganders

why is it that some people in Michigan add a 't' or an "ed" to the word across? for example, Windsor is acrossed the river from Detroit.
It makes me nuts Mad

#9802 09/16/2007 01:07 pm

I've heard that pretty often in a lot of places.

Also, "drawling" instead of "drawing."

#10104 Firedorn (unregistered) 11/13/2007 09:48 pm

Why do some people say unthaw, when they mean thaw?

#10167 Anonymous 11/28/2007 02:51 pm Re: is it just Michiganders

Canuck:

why is it that some people in Michigan add a 't' or an "ed" to the word across? for example, Windsor is acrossed the river from Detroit.
It makes me nuts

Growing up with my mother...
"You'll never guess who I saul today."
"Be sure to warsh behind your ears."

#10169 Anonymous 11/28/2007 03:49 pm

"Don't play that card over my head!"

#10178 Random Web Browser (unregistered) 11/30/2007 02:21 pm Thanks for clearing it up

Just another post to thank you for clearing it up. I did not think it was French.

#10186 mitch (unregistered) 12/04/2007 11:29 am this truly is much ADO about nothing, but...

i used google to try and correct this in an email i was writing for work because it told me ado was spelled incorrectly but i did not think it was adieu either. You are part of the solution fluffy so thank you, but i did not know what i was getting myself into...

#10211 hipcat (unregistered) 12/13/2007 01:04 pm Hanging Prepositions

"But here is the link you were referring to"

edit: Here is the link to which you were referring.

Sorry but hanging prepositions drive me insane!

#10212 12/13/2007 03:06 pm

That's a style/diction issue, and not really worth caring about. (Try rewriting that sentence without a hanging preposition without it sounding totally awkward.)

#10213 hipcat (unregistered) 12/14/2007 11:14 am

fluffy:

That's a style/diction issue, and not really worth caring about. (Try rewriting that sentence without a hanging preposition without it sounding totally awkward.)

Actually it's a matter of syntax and grammar. Whether you care about it or not is your choice. I did give you an example of that sentence but it seems proper English makes you feel awkward....not my intention.

#10214 12/14/2007 02:29 pm

No, I meant, try rewriting the sentence "That's a style/diction issue, and not really worth caring about." "About" is a preposition.

Furthermore, hanging prepositions are a style/diction issue, not a grammar issue. Every reference I see online for why to not end a sentence with a preposition state that it makes a sentence "end weakly," not that it's an invalid construct. English isn't really a syntactically-strict language to begin with.

(And there's another sentence ending with a preposition which would be difficult to rewrite.)

(Oops! Sentence fragment!)

#10437 sarahpatrice (unregistered) 02/07/2008 10:22 am this is awesome

Thanks for clearing up the adieu issue. I edit an in-house corporate e-mail, and just looking at the phrase made me a little queasy. It seems as if people have stopped reading and writing on a very basic level. It's nice to see I'm not the only one paying attention. I love this site!

#10448 DrMonkeytoes (unregistered) 02/11/2008 10:21 am Grammar/style/diction

fluffy:

That's a style/diction issue, and not really worth caring about. (Try rewriting that sentence without a hanging preposition without it sounding totally awkward.)

Fluffy, I know what you mean about the style/diction thing and I'm not here to slam you. I just also understand about what hipcat is saying. If you care so passionately about one part of grammar or style/diction, why not care about the whole thing. It doesn't really matter, but I was just trying to help explain hipcat's point of view.

As for his original comment, I thought of another way that doesn't sound as formal, which you might like better - using of instead of to:
Here is the link of which you were referring.

Heck, maybe that is just as bad and could even be incorrect grammar Smile

I too do not like dangling prepositions. The whole "at" at the end of every sentence...where did you find it at? Grrr! However, I think it's a combination of both ways. In English, we tend to construct sentences a little lazily (with more slang) and differently than they do in other cultures. I speak Spanish fluently and I find that if I want to say something in more of a proper way, I change the construction of the sentence to sound more like the direct translation in Spanish, but with the nouns and verbs in the proper places.

That's a style/diction isssue and is about something of which I really don't care.

It's not the exact same terminology, but the true meaning is the same.

Another thing that helps is to just pretend like you're in Harry Potter and everything sounds just fine - normal or formal Smile

Perhaps I'm all wrong - I make mistakes every day. I hope I didn't hurt any feelings. It was all just in good, clean grammar fun Smile

#10449 DrMonkeytoes (unregistered) 02/11/2008 10:35 am Ado

fluffy:

English isn't really a syntactically-strict language to begin with.

I forgot to include this one. This was the one I was talking about in regards to sentence construction. It's all just about how we put sentences together. They all can make sense.

"To begin with, English isn't really a syntactically-strict language."

It doesn't really matter, I was just trying to help.

Also, I forgot to thank you for the whole "ado" post. It was something that I always wanted to know.

#10450 02/11/2008 10:57 am Re: Grammar/style/diction

DrMonkeytoes:

Fluffy, I know what you mean about the style/diction thing and I'm not here to slam you. I just also understand about what hipcat is saying. If you care so passionately about one part of grammar or style/diction, why not care about the whole thing.

Because there are shades of gray between black and white. There are also plenty of colors out there too. But I'm sorry, chartreuse and hot pink do NOT go well together.

#10463 DrMonkeytoes (unregistered) 02/19/2008 06:08 pm True

You're right. I agree 100 % and I'm sorry that I said anything in the first place. Peace Laughing

#10472 02/20/2008 08:42 pm

also

#10488 02/23/2008 07:35 am Stylistic issue?

I would not give up so quickly on cleverly writing around the use of dangling prepositions were I you, fluffy. Personally, I find it to be a worthwhile intellectual challenge. I believe that you are up to the task. To say you do not care significantly undermines your credibility when you complain about other abuses about which you DO care.

#10489 02/23/2008 11:24 am

That is the most awkward-sounding paragraph ever.

#10745 jessica (unregistered) 04/13/2008 10:05 am Re: Of course it's wrong

big fat idiot:

It's wrong on purpose. A pun of sorts.

Personally, I love making those sorts of mixed metaphors and horrid euphemisms.

Don't jump to contusions.

We'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

A day late and a dog hair short.

"don't jump to contusions" is AWESOME!