Terminology

Happy Friday Everyone,

Ever seen the musical (or watched the movie version) The Music Man? In it the mayor says "Watch your phraseology!" when his daughter uses slang.

While thinking about this blog post the words "I devour books" came to mind, then of course, that quote popped into my head.

Have you noticed that if you translated certain phrases literally they wouldn't be quite as fun as they are?

Like devouring books. Who really wants to eat books? (Other than Kim Lenox's character in her Shadow Guards series)

I mean I read books at a pretty fast rate, so figuratively I devour them, but literally? Nah, I don't think I'd want to eat them.

What about the figure of speech, "I could eat a horse"?

Obviously we all know it means the person's very hungry, but what if someone (like say, the character, Amelia Bedelia--books by Peggy Parish) took the speaker seriously and served them up a horse and handed them a fork and knife?

Speaking of Amelia Bedelia, I think she's a great example of what would happen if we took those phrases literally. Oh the trouble we could get into (that she manages to get into often).

Have A Fun Friday!