Saturday, September 30, 2017

D'ye Want The Fried Calms With That?

     You can "clam up," but you can't clam down. Conversely, you can "calm down," but no one ever calms up. And yet they're not opposites -- it's totally possible to calm down and clam up.

      This is one of the great mysteries of the the English language.

9 comments:

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Mmmm, now I am hungry for a dozen fried Cherrystone Calms. With ballets.

rickn8or said...

Things like this are why I come here every day.

fillyjonk said...

Yeah, but if you come across a calm for sale that's already open, don't buy it, it's dead.

The Old Man said...

And I attended a clambake tonight and I have another at the Post tomorrow.
I don't even eat clams.... But the Bosslady does.

Antibubba said...

But if clamming up causes someone else trouble, are you just being shellfish?

Jeffrey Smith said...

If someone raises a clamor, do you tell them to clam up or calm down?

Roberta X said...

Mmmmm, clambake! I'm jealous.

Jeffrey Smith for the win, though. Well-played! Antibubba is a close second.

Anonymous said...

Try to explain the difference between "slow up" and "slow down" to a non-native speaker some time.

John of the GMA

Retired Spook said...

Had an instructor in the Korean language course at Monterey, who opined that English is a very strange language, because "fat chance and slim chance is same thing."