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What idiom did you initially misunderstand, but you prefer your interpretation? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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Mine is tow the line rather than toe the line.

I imagine someone as a tugboat--towing the line of what is expected. I like that imagery better than keeping a foot on some fucking line. Plus using toe as a verb is dumb.

What are yours?

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[–] 23 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (8 children)

For the longest time, in my online vocabulary, POC meant "piece of crap". And then a few years back I started seeing posts and articles where this and that person was referred to as a POC, and it took me a while of thinking "that's a bit harsh, though?", until I realized that my three decades old IRC lingo had to be updated.

I can live without my original definition, as POS serves the same purpose. Plus, my earlier use had no connection to skin tone, but using it as "Piece of Crap" today gives some racist undertones that I don't want to be associated with.

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  • [–] 14 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    POS=Point Of Sale...

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago

    That guy is a real POS! (Piece Of Shit)

    That is how I heard it before a job where they kept calling the computer a POS and I thought 'it isn't that bad, better than the register from the prior job' for a couple weeks before someone called it a Point of Sale.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago*

    It's so funny whenever I hear that acronym used professionally.

    "Oh yeah? you're pretty psyched about your new enterprise grade POS system? Sounds awesome..."

    Sure, it means point of sale, but it only means that in this one context...

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Why does "piece of crap" have racist undertones?

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago

    In a vacuum it doesn't, but the connotation of a more modern interpretation of the abbreviation would probably result in many interpreting any insistence from me as "Person of color" = "piece of crap".

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