Yes; extremely subtle, and it's more a sense that I get from the wording of the definition rather than something that I can explain clearly.

But; in my feeble attempt, I do see that "bad" is usually used with "a" while wrong is usually used with "the".

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Why get mad at Bush for saying it? It's not likely he actually wrote the speech, right?

Either way - you're just heating water. Once it is hot - I suppose you are still applying heat to hot water, but just calling it a water heater works under all circumstances. With the new "on demand" systems - there is no tank of water that you are keeping hot. They heat the water as you use it and people still call them hot water heaters.

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Spock Jenkins of the Vulcan Jenkins'.

True enough. I save my irritation for things obviously not written in.

A lot of idioms don't make any sense. If we start picking on 'em all the time, we're going to run out of things to say really soon.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

A lot of idioms don't make any sense. If we start picking on 'em all the time, we're going to run out of things to say really soon.

My wife is an immigrant. Several times, she's asked me to explain an idiomatic expression. Quite a few are difficult to explain, (e.g. "I'm just pulling your leg."). If an expression doesn't mean anything, then why say it? Why not say what you really mean?

My personal pet hated idiom is thus...

A man is walking across a road at a pedestrian crossing - meanwhile 5 miles away someone is on a shooting range. They miss their target, the bullet ricochets off, flies 5 miles, hits the back of the traffic lights and shorts the connection to 'green' . An unattentive motorist doesn't see him, but does see the green light. Just seconds before hitting him - the motorist sees him, slams on the brakes but they don't work well as a freak flood 1/4 mile back down the road made a ford which made the brakes wet and ineffective. The guy is flattened by the motorist, the car then impales the traffic light spilling fuel across the road. The shorted traffic light sparks, lights the fuel and the poor pedestrian suffers 80% burns before he can be pulled from the flaming scene.

He spends 18 weeks in hospital - another 6 months learning to walk again in therapy. He's lost his job, and thus his house because of it and decends into a life of drink and self loathing

BUT

Because he didn't ACTUALLY get killed, people would say "Boy, you were lucky!"

To put it a little more appropriately - say the bombings in London a few years ago. They described people who were injured but not killed as a 'lucky escape'. WHAT...What's lucky about getting on a train that gets blown up! ARHGHGHGHG

And relax.

Doug

Perhaps because it makes our language more interesting and "colorful?"

Many times idioms are more efficient, too. A large percentage of the population understands "pulling one's leg" and understands what it means. The meaning contains shades of irony and humor that saying you are "spoofing or making fun of him, with tones of deception or trickery" might not convey as efficiently. It certainly is more interesting anyway.

CJSF

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Two years ago moved from my town
I was looking up past the city lights
But the city lights got in my way

See the constellation ride across the sky
No cigar, no lady on his arm
Just a guy made of dots and lines

-from "See The Constellation"
by They Might Be Giants

Yup. Colourful. I mean, why use metaphor, simile, etc., at all? Because it makes a better (or at least different!) point.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"