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.
This is one of the great mysteries of the the English language.
9 comments:
Mmmm, now I am hungry for a dozen fried Cherrystone Calms. With ballets.
Things like this are why I come here every day.
Yeah, but if you come across a calm for sale that's already open, don't buy it, it's dead.
And I attended a clambake tonight and I have another at the Post tomorrow.
I don't even eat clams.... But the Bosslady does.
But if clamming up causes someone else trouble, are you just being shellfish?
If someone raises a clamor, do you tell them to clam up or calm down?
Mmmmm, clambake! I'm jealous.
Jeffrey Smith for the win, though. Well-played! Antibubba is a close second.
Try to explain the difference between "slow up" and "slow down" to a non-native speaker some time.
John of the GMA
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."
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