I, on occasion, stop and observe phrases that people use in everyday life. And when I do this, I tend to find some things that, when viewed without researching their etymology, just don't make sense.
Take the word "bullshit". What does the fecal matter of a bull have to do with "nonsense"? A bull shitting makes sense. The closest I can come to a connection is considering bull shit as useless, but that is not nonsensical. And even the useless label is questionable consider they are now taking panda crap and making souvenirs out of it.
And so, in honour of my friend's blog, The War on Bullshit, I have started an occasional blog post entitled "Nonsensical Vernacular" to leisurely look at words that make no sense unless you know where they came from (of which I suspect pretty much no one who uses the phrase does).
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