About Me

My photo
Bespectacled with a body so thin A face that hides a sardonic grin!!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Wise Versa?


The other day, my friend told me “B, you are not slim but thin.” All this while, I cogitated that slim and thin were synonyms, but her words proved otherwise.

Similarly, do you invite your friends for your marriage or for your wedding?

Watching a cinema in a movie hall or is it watching a movie in a cinema hall?

Whether an innocent man is naive or naive one innocent?

Also, some idioms/proverbs contradict each other. Take the following cases

Unity is strength or do too many cooks spoil the broth?

Slow and steady wins the race, but early bird catches the worm.

Actions speak louder than words, remember the pen is mightier than the sword.

Ignorance is bliss since little knowledge is a dangerous thing/empty vessels make the most noise, but something is always better than nothing.

Have you encountered such ridiculous riddles in words or in wisdom? If yes, write in.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

climate and weather
sex and gender
hotel and restaurant
surgery and operation

let me try if i can get more

Divya Venugopal said...

wrong and incorrect
gone and went
buy and get
will add more when I get

whoami said...

@Kavitha, @Divya
Good ones. Thank you

SRISHA said...

Mmm.. thought provoking. Let me try to explain a few (even though I may not come up to your expectations ;))

Marriage is the relationship, but a wedding is the ceremony only.

Naive is like simplicity of nature, and innocence you can say guiltless.

Then what? Ok, climate deals with the characteristics of a region (like tropical, arctic etc), and weather deals with day-to-day changes (like cloudy, sunny, rainy etc).

Ashutosh said...

Hey that's a really interesting list you've put up..I kind of recollect one of those ambiguous pair of idioms I'd read some time back..It was something like "the nail that sticks out gets hammered" and "squeaky wheel fetches the greese"..One says that you would not be tolerated if you make noise whereas the other one conveys that the ones who create noise are the ones who get attention..
Strange contradictions..isn't it...

Anna Bond said...

Contradictions are inevitable. Man made up the so called 'wise' words as and when the situation demanded.
Situations can contradict and hence the sayings will too.
Simple, na? :)

whoami said...

@Potter
Thanks for those explanations

@Ashutosh
With passing time new phrases are coined which may sometimes contradict the existing ones. Earlier, a person being Jack of all trades and master of none was considered awful. But don’t you think in the career that we are part of; we are better rewarded if we are Jack of all trades and master of some?

@Bond
You are right; we need to adopt new strategies to adapt to the changing environment

Unknown said...

Too many cooks spoil the broth BUT many hands make work light!

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Anonymous said...

I inclination not approve on it. I think polite post. Particularly the designation attracted me to study the whole story.

Anonymous said...

Amiable post and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you on your information.

Anonymous said...

Amiable post and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you seeking your information.

Anonymous said...

You have really great taste on catch article titles, even when you are not interested in this topic you push to read it

Anonymous said...

Good post and this fill someone in on helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you on your information.

Anonymous said...

Nice brief and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you on your information.