Re: Another
think coming - the plot thickens (thiggens?)
Posted by TheFallen on October 11, 2002 In Reply to: Re:
Another thinG coming posted by Ed Stansell on October 11, 2002
: : : : Can anyone help solve an office argument?
: : : : Is the following phrase
correct:
: : : : If you think that then you've got another thing coming;
:
: : : Or should it be
: : : : If you think that then you've got another think
coming?
: : : It is definitely "another think".
: : No evidence, just another
opinion: I believe the original phrase was: "If you think XXXX, you've got another
THING coming." But somewhere along the line it mutated to "...you've got another
THINK coming." I first heard "think" used by a Disney character.
: I know how
you folks love documentation, but I don't have any. But this one is in very current
usage so we should get by without doc.
: When someone says that they think
this or that and you believe them to be wrong, you say "well, if you think that,
then you've got another think comming." In my house we spoke better Enlish than
that. When someone said, I think this or I thought that, we would say, you've
got another thought coming.
: ES
I've just, while Googling both phrases (results
are oddly 6,640 for "got another thing coming" and 1,830 for "got another think
coming"), discovered the following in our own archives, courtesy of the learned
Masakim. I hereby paste it in its entirety.
*** snip ***
"You have another
think coming"
"If you think that, you have another think coming" means "You
are mistaken and will soon have to alter your opinion". This is now sometimes
heard with "thing" in place of "think", but "think" is the older version. Eric
Partridge, in A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, gives the phrase as "you have another
guess coming", "US: since the 1920s, if not a decade or two earlier". Clearly
"think" is closer to "guess" than "thing" is. The OED gives a citation with "think"
from 1937, and no evidence for "thing". Merriam-Webster Editorial Department writes:
"When an informal poll was conducted here at Merriam-Webster, about 60% of our
editors favored 'thing' over 'think,' a result that runs counter to our written
evidence."
From The alt.usage.english FAQ File
*** end snip ***
A couple
of websites I visited claim that this phrase is changing from its original deliberately
and humorously ungrammatical form to a grammatically correct form that misses
the point - because people are overly keen to avoid errors. However, most authorities,
such as they are, seem to go with "another think". I'd suspect that the phrase
originally had slight sarcastic overtones implying stupidity, similar perhaps
to another deliberately ungrammatical usage, as follows:-
"Elizabeth Taylor's
got married again - well gee, who'da thunk it?"
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