Word of the day: fight shy of

Kettle's idiom of the day: get a grip (relax; to calm down; to stop being angry; to come to one's senses or become more rational)

Amazing thing!

I listened to that Aerosmith album hundreds of times, and never bothered to look up the meaning of "get a grip" or ask my school teacher of English.

I learned the meaning today.

"fight shy of" is very odd

I took me awhile to understand the meaning;

@snailboat But it is a slang term, isn't it?

Do you mean it was more common in the 1990s?

I recall the picture of the udder and the words "Get a grip!"

I thought the meaning was "grip these .. mammary glands (?)"

@snailboat It has a different slang meaning? I'll look up now

> another way of saying "take it easy" or "stop being so f**kin' paranoid already!"

This one?

Ah!

Maybe it's not always wrong, but it's touch-and-go

I would fight shy of saying that it's always wrong.

Yes, you should give Urban Dictionary some wiggle room.

(0:

Good movie

I would gladly subtrahend a dozen of modern movies for a good old movie like this.

@CowperKettle Lol.

nods

@snailboat Yeah, I read fight shy of in an article written by a British person. LDOCE labels it as British English even though the ODE doesn't say anything.

@snailboat Hm, yeah. Get a grip on reality sounds like a plausible etymology, but I think the paraphrase of get ahold of yourself is more likely.

@CowperKettle There was probably an intended double meaning there

@snailboat I would use “get a hold on yourself!” Or “get hold of yourself “ meaning, “stop being so hysterical “

I think get a grip is more about someone being unrealistic than hysterical

“We should refactor all the code so that is is unicorn friendly!” “Get a grip, we don’t have time for that! Unicorns are impossible to please.”

> A research team at the University of Texas Medical Branch have bioengineered lungs and transplanted them into adult pigs with no medical complication.

Wow

medicalxpress.com/news/…

@userr2684291 Yes, probably. I dunno

Word of the evening: sexual diergism

> Instead of looking at just the phenotypic differences between males and females as the result of variations in function, Rhodes and Rubin coined the term ‘sexual diergism’ to describe differences in terms of physiology, biochemistry, and underlying behaviors.

Everyone will definitely surely use that term

I think it's touch-and-go

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Pingolin.

@userr2684291 I disagree

I also have no idea what your cryptic messages mean

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I was merely pinguin you.

@CowperKettle I first heard this in an episode of Breaking Bad, where a kid was poisoned and hospitalized. But then they figured it out (that he'd been poisoned) and started treating him. One of the characters then said it had looked touch-and-go for a while but that the kid was going to pull through (or something similar).

@snailboat ell.stackexchange.com/questions/175027/… I couldn't shake off this impression either. Is that grammatical or what? The more times I read it, the more acceptable it becomes, however.

Alright, nah... I took a little break and reread it and it makes no sense.

I mean, it's just off.