OT: More grammar stuff - irreversible binomials

[Kolumbo]

horseshoes & hand grenades

 

[fomalhaut]

Catch and release

Some of these couldn't possibly be the other way: how can you release something before you catch it?

 

[fomalhaut]

I must admit I am an absolute beginner in some respects and while fully aware I deeply regret to never reach a clear understanding of what the Boneyard considers common knowledge even when the dogs bark. It's the ying and yang of it that takes getting used to but between you and me it can be either/or strength and endurance but I will neither confirm nor deny the results.

as long as we're being pedantic, it''s yin and yang.

 

[Blond D.]

John, Paul, George and Ringo....the FAB FOUR

There ya go...two for the price of one.
...did I just make two more?

 

[sno-cat]

Finders Keepers - Losers Weepers!

 

[veivoli]

Finders Keepers - Losers Weepers!

Now, now... That's a quadratic! Or is it two binomials? 🤓

As I said earlier, I prefer calling them binaries (like binary stars) rather than binomials, that has a fairly narrow definition in maths.

 

[Jackcatscal]

Addison & Steele, eighteenth century English writers who published The Spectator, a periodical of essays that was the ancestor of modern-day newspapers. The Spectator (1711) - Wikipedia.

 

[Jackcatscal]

Ellington and Strayhorn
Evers Tinker Chance
Geno and Chris

I've always heard it as "Tinker to Evers to Chance." See Baseball's Sad Lexicon - Wikipedia.

And it makes more sense from a baseball prospective. You're talking about double plays, so shortstop to second baseman to first baseman should be the proper order.

 

[Jackcatscal]

Shakespeare has to count for something in discussing binomials. One great example: "Sound and Fury" from Macbeth.

And, if you haven't had enough, here are two painfully academic analyses of binomials in literature:

• BINOMIALS IN AN HISTORICAL ENGLISH LITERARY PERSPECTIVE: SHAKESPEARE, CHAUCER, BEOWULF
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309733937_Binomials_in_an_historical_English_Perspective

 

[DennieEddy]

Here's a triplet: The good, the bad, and the ugly (has nothing to do with the BY).

Upon occasion, all 3 would apply!

 

[Blond D.]

No doubt it was a well known collocation as you remember it. Given the popularity of Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who, which reversed the order, we now have two well known collocations. As they are directionally opposites, I wonder if the term “irreversible” can be applied to either?

View attachment 110829

Dr. Seuss needed vim to rhyme with him, thats why he reversed the order.

 

[Skeets]

Dr. Seuss is the GOAT. Is this the right thread to be talking about GOATs?

I still have the first 10 or 15 pages of Horton memorized. Usually that's all it took to put my kids to sleep.