Shhh! Nobody tell them about “inside out.”
Don’t tell them about insid-- dang! Too late
Why isn’t it outside in?
It could be to do with something called “ablaut reduplication”. Very basically English has a - kind of - untaught sound order that native speakers inherently apply to the language. Wikipedia will have an article to explain it better. Specifically the vowel order I-A-O. A great example is the phrase “Bish bash bosh” which is getting coverage recently. (One notable exception is “shit, shower, shave” but that is probably down to the chronology of the actions.)
Spot on insight :)
The opposite of “upside down” is not “downside up”, but “right-side up”.
The opposite of “right-side up” is not “left-side down”, but “upside down”.
Ladies, gentlemen, and all in between. The English language.
The up side is the right side. The down side is the wrong side. Quite logical to me
You’ve just made it make sense. Have an upvote of my gratitude.
Wait until you learn the news is new.
Damnit someone just last week told me it was an acronym for notable events weather and sports but this makes more sense
A good rule of thumb is that any word etymology that is an acronym is probably false if the word is more than 100 years old.
Breakfast = break fast (as in fasting) :)
Walking backwards is also called “penis-side butt” in some languages.
Heh good insight.
(Ps I also have these thoughts about breaking words down (unicorn is uni-corn) and some people get really snarky about it. Don’t let bad comments get to you.)
TIL that people didn’t get this. I had a similar situation where I would pronounce unleaded as unleeded
Oh, I used to do this all the time. You see a word in print, but you never hear anybody say it, so you wind up pronouncing it wrong.
I think the best was when I pronounced “misled” as my-seld because I thought it was the past tense of “misle”.
You should celebrate with some upside down cake
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How else would one interpret it?
It’s not really that I interpret it in another way, but I never really thought about the structure of the word 😅
Go further. For example, people say ‘gypped’ without knowing it’s a pejorative reference to the word ‘Gypsy’ which is itself a pejorative of the Romani.
I remember learning this about 20ish years ago and telling my then-sister in law about it when I explained why I wasn’t going to use it anymore. I got told I had a stick up my ass, and this was by a marginalized (gay, immigrant) woman. (Somewhat unrelated note - very grateful she’s a former relation.)
So glad people have been learning and I’ve been hearing “gypped” less and less in recent years.
Some words have simply entered common use and become decoupled from their former meaning. Maybe your acquaintance was right.
Seems like Orwell was right
And the Egyptians, too!
I think the pronunciation, specifically the blending of the end of “upside” and beginning of “down”, turns it into one of those compound words that your brain interprets as an independent word, rather than a combination of its composite parts.
Brave of you to post this
Now explain why some people are “down for things” while others are “up for it”
Does “right-side up” mean the right side is up or the “right” side is up? English does not make sense
also hi binette
Right as in correct.
hi nww :D
Right as incorrect.
Stupid english
Totally. The right hand I use to write with is not my right hand, it’s my left (averechts, if you will)
I’m my language it’s “bottom up” (ondersteboven).
Also came to a similar realization in my language with “averechts”, which means the other way around.
Rechts = right (side, from my pov)
Averechts = ave ( dialect for “your”) right side.
You’re basically communicating “my right or your right”. Asking for right or left can be done by saying rechts or averechts.
Also besides ondersteboven and averechts, we have achterstevoren, which means back side in front.
Nice one, a bit like right vs stage right
Always funny to see native speakers discover trivial facts about their language
Took me until high school to realize bonjour=bon jour=good day. My brain just about exploded. Worldview destroyed.
