Idioms with Compare

The verb compare comes from Latin comparare, “to pair together, couple, match, bring together.” It occurs in four common English idioms.

to compare someone or something to someone or something
to compare someone or something with someone or something
to compare notes onsomething or someone
to compare apples and oranges

compare with or to
Many speakers use “compare to” and “compare with” interchangeably; doing so is not an error. However, many writers observe a difference between the two.The Chicago Manual of Style does not state the difference as a rule, but does mention it in the section called “Good usage versus common usage:

To compare with is to discern both similarities and differences between things.
To compare to is to note primarily similarities between things.

For example, in the context of discussing the history of wartime nursing, one might compare Clara Barton to Florence Nightingale and be done with it; both women are noted for caring for wounded men on the battlefield.

Compare with would be reserved for a detailed comparison that notes differences between two people who are similar in some respects, but not in others.

compare notes
“To compare notes” means “to compare observations.” For example, friends attending a conference might go to different sessions and later talk to each other about what they learned. Students reading the same novel might compare notes on their individual impressions.

compare apples to oranges
“To compare apples and oranges” is usually used in a context in which two things are so different from one another as to defy meaningful comparison. For example, the tiny country of Finland is often held up as a model for U.S. public education, but American educators protest in such statements as this: “Finland has free health care and preschool. We don’t. You’re comparing apples to oranges.”

For Free and Other Pleonastic Expressions

pleonasm: The use of more words in a sentence or clause than are necessary to express the meaning

Pleonastic expressions are common in conversation. We all use turns of phrase in which we repeat ourselves: “the books were few in number,” “We madeadvance dinner reservations,” “I know with positive certainty.”

few: adjective. amounting to a small number.
reservation: noun. an act of engaging a seat, room, place, ticket, vehicle, etc., in advance;
positive: adjective. expressed without qualification; certain.

In casual conversation, speakers may be forgiven these verbal tics, but advertisers and journalists can be expected to aim to minimize redundancy in their copy.

Here are some examples from the web:

Twenty-One Cool Products And Services You Can Get For Free

“An unexpected surprise” (very popular headline for hotel reviews)

The Borden twist is that Borden and Fallon are a pair of identical twins who take turns as each persona.

Las Vegas has its share of annoying pests.

Future prospects remain bright for agricultural graduates

Do you want to give your child everything he needs to succeed as a baseball player? Good! — Teach them the basic fundamentals when they are small.

What is the current consensus of opinion concerning the relationship of REM sleep to emotional stability?

Poorer soils are usually paler brown in color…

the green color shows a few raindrops, but the red color indicates very intense rain.

County Schools’ Report Card Scores Show Good Improvement

for free: If something is “free,” it is “given out of generosity and not in return for something else.” The formation “for free” has probably developed by analogy with “for nothing,” One can get “something for nothing,” A “free gift” is also pleonastic; the most common meaning of gift is “something given without charge,” i.e., “free.” It is enough for advertisers to announce that something is available free: “Buy a computer and get a printer free.”

unexpected surprise: a surprise is an unexpected occurrence or event.

pair of identical twins: Two children or young brought forth at one birth aretwins. A pair is “a couple; a set of two.” It’s enough to say that the men are “identical twins.”

annoying pests: In the figurative sense, a pest is “an annoying person or thing.”

future prospects: The word prospects in this context refers to future occasions or events.

basic fundamental: Fundamental means “serving as the foundation or base on which something is built.” The adjective basic means “Of, pertaining to, or forming a base; fundamental.”

consensus of opinion: The word consensus is enough. It means “Agreement in opinion.”

brown in color, green color, red color: A color is a hue or tint. Brown, green, and red are colors. It is rarely necessary to say so when describing a weather map or other depiction in color. It’s enough to say, “The red indicates intense rain.”

good improvement: The word improvement includes the idea of “good.” There’s no such thing as “bad improvement.” The word can be modified in terms of degree. For example, “slight improvement,” and “minor improvement.”

Study, Learn, and Read

Some ESL speakers have trouble with these verbs.

To study is to apply the mind to the acquisition of knowledge. Books are the first avenue that comes to mind, but as the object of study is the acquisition of knowledge, other means include observation and experiment. Play is a form of study for children.

Although the word learn is closely associated with study, the following sentences have completely different meanings:

I am studying German.
I am learning German.

Many a student studies a subject in school without learning it.

To read has several meanings. The most common is “to scan written or printed words and get meaning from them.”

One noteworthy usage difference between British and American English is the use of read in reference to postsecondary education. In the U.S., students go to the university “to study history” or some other subject; in England, they go to university “to read history.”

The idiom “to read up on” means “to study.” For example, “Before you travel to India, you may want to read up a little on the culture.”

Idioms with read:
to read between the lines: to draw conclusions not apparent from surface appearances. “She tells them that she cares for them, but when she turned down their last three dinner invitations, I could read between the lines.”

read my lips! Ordinarily, this expression is used to emphasize a speaker’s sincerity and resolve: “Listen carefully!” “Pay close attention!” “Take my word for it!” In 1988, the phrase became closely associated with G. H. W. Bush, who said, “Read my lips: No new Taxes!” when accepting the presidential nomination. Because Bush did raise taxes during his presidency, political writers often use the phrase ironically.

to read someone like a book: to understand a person’s character and thoughts by studying outward signs.

to read a person’s mind: to guess what a person is thinking or intending to do.

to read the Riot Act: The phrase originated in reference to an 18th century Act passed by the British Parliament following several serious riots. The Act authorized local officials to disperse any gathering of more than 12 people who were “unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together.” An official would confront the group and read the part of the act that spelled out the consequences for refusing to obey. Nowadays the expression is used by adults in reference to noisy children: “Sounds like they’re getting pretty wild in there; you’d better go read them the Riot Act.”

Idioms with learn:
to learn by heart: to memorize

learn by rote: to learn by means of repetition, the way one learns the alphabet, the multiplication tables, and scientific phyla.

A learning curve is psychological jargon that has found a place in the general vocabulary. It means “the rate of a person’s progress in learning a new skill.” The expression derives from is a curve on a graph illustrating the rate of learning by a lab subject.

Modern usage distinguishes between learn and teach, but in Shakespeare’s time, learn was used in the sense of “teach”:

The red plague rid you
for learning me your language! –Caliban, The Tempest I:ii (1611)

This use survives in some dialects, but not in standard usage.

Fewer idioms with study come to mind:
study a face: to look closely at a face, as if to memorize its features.

study the options: to consider possible solutions to a problem or course of action.

be in a brown study: “A state of mental abstraction or musing; gloomy meditation. The word brown originally described a color so dark as to be almost black.

Boy Oh Boy

This sentence in a newspaper feature about Civil War hero David O. Dodd, got me thinking about the word boy:

Dodd is lionized in these parts as the “Boy Martyr of the Confederacy” — although “Teen Martyr” would be a more accurate sobriquet for a young man who was only a year short of being old enough to be drafted into the Rebel army.”

Dodd was 17 when Union troops occupying Little Rock hanged him in 1864. The word boy to refer to a 17-year-old seems a valid choice to me.

Boy has been in the language since 1300. More than one etymology has been argued, but its origin is uncertain. Its earliest use in English was with the meaning “male servant” or “slave.”

Note: Before boy came to mean “a male child,” the word girl was used to refer to young people of either sex. A speaker who wanted to refer to a “male ‘girl’” used the expression “knave girl.” Both words, boy and girl, had taken on their present meanings by the 1400s.

In the British colonies and in the American South, boy was used to refer to non-white servants, regardless of age. Today, of course, such usage is considered to be extremely offensive. In France, until fairly recently, the usual term for summoning a waiter was garçon, “boy,” but nowadays, serveur is the masculine term for “waiter.”

Apart from its general meaning of “a young male, (usually below the age of puberty, or still in school),” boy occurs in a great variety of idioms that refer not just to male human beings of any age, but to dogs as well.

Oh boy! Depending upon context and intonation, this exclamation can denote delight or dismay. For example, “Oh boy! I’ve won the lottery!” or, “Oh boy, you’re in trouble now.

That’s my boy! A parent, proud of a son, might say this in approval of some accomplishment.

Old boys’ club/old boys’ network: network of social and professional connections that perpetuate favoritism in government and other sectors. The expression originated with the British “public school” system. (In the U.K., “public schools” are elite private schools attended by the children of the wealthy.) Male graduates of exclusive schools were called “old boys.” Because of connections forged in school, these “old boys” went on to occupy highly placed jobs in government and commerce, helped by a previous generation of “old boys” who made up a segment of insiders. By extension, the expression can be used to refer to any kind of favoritism that makes advancement difficult for outsiders.

There’s a good boy! An expression pet owners use with male dogs. Sometimes it is phrased as a question: “Who’s a good boy?”

Down, boy! This expression is used to address a dog that is jumping on someone. By extension, it is used humorously to a man who reacts with interest when introduced to a good-looking woman.

Our boys in uniform: Men serving in the military, regardless of age. Now that women are more visible in the military, the expression is not as common as it once was.

Boys’ night out: A weekly social outing for friends, limited to men.

Boys will be boys: An expression of resigned acceptance uttered when men do something despicable that is considered to be characteristic of age or sex.

Send a boy to do a man’s job: to ask someone young, ill-equipped, or inexperienced to do difficult or complicated work. Usually in negative contexts, as “Never send a boy to do a man’s job.”

boy next door: Unlike most “boy” expressions, this one has a corresponding one for women: girl next door. The expressions denote a stereotypical personification of a young, unspoiled, admirable character whom one might safely fall in love with.

boy king: Tutankhamen is often referred to as “the boy king.” Boy can be used in a descriptive sense with any noun: “boy wonder,” “boy genius.”