Comments on: A Pretty Kettle Of Fish And Other Idioms

By: David Bennett

David Bennett — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:43:39 +0000

Thank you for your comment. I rather like ‘That’s a horse of a different color.”

Apart from anything else, it makes me think of a very different horse to the kind I imagine being flogged.

I imagine a horse out West, on a ranch somewhere – which is part of my mental picture of the States inherited from my youth – endless open spaces and big blue skies.

By: Ruth Billheimer

Ruth Billheimer — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:38:09 +0000

Fascinating post. In America, of course, they say “that’s a horse of a different color(sic)” for “a different kettle of fish”. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see how the English language has developed in different parts of the world?

I think a lot of the American usages date from the 16th century or whenever it was that they left England and became isolated from the mainstream development of the language.

I am married to an American and had some little difficulty communicating when we first met, until I realised – it’s a different language! I wouldn’t berate a German for not speaking idiomatic English, so why expect an American to understand the twists and turns of the language. Then I settled down and was able to become “bi-lingual”!
Sorry, I’ve gone way off-topic, I know!

By: David Bennett

David Bennett — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:59:20 +0000

Indeed, witness the word ‘whimsy’.

Beautifully said.

By: nothingprofound

nothingprofound — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:52:36 +0000

That’s the great thing about language: its whimsicality. It make no sense no matter how hard we try to make sense of it. It grows and develops by custom and by our emotional reactions and by the arbitrary uses we make of it.