Ceiling, roof, what's the difference? :)
Thanks for this, Marianne!
Years ago our east-coast nephew said "I'm down with that," which I took to mean he was voting AGAINST pizza. "Down with pizza" would have meant "no pizza" back in my day. Where did "I'm down" originate to mean "I'm up for that?"
If one must get stuck with an earworm, "Heard it through the Grapevine" is good. Commercial jingles ((Menards, O'Reilly's, Visiting Angels, gaaahhh!!!) should be prohibited or restricted--or used as torture devices. In fact Barney the Dinsoaur's theme song was used to torture POWs.
Ha - your poor nephew must have been sad when he didn't get any pizza lol
and that is terrible torture!!! Barney the Dinosaur!! How could they!!!
Oh, he got his pizza - after explaining what "down with that" meant. :) But, hey, miscommunication can have horrific consequences!
That is for sure!!! And living in a time where we move around in the world, we really need to learn not to assume...
Well... the same thing happens with my native language, Italian.
When I was a kid, there were ways to say "awesome" that literally should mean the opposite, like "bestiale" (beastly) or "pesante" (heavy). Nowadays, nobody talks like that anymore, except some never-grew-up fifty-something :P