Re: Another
think coming - the plot thickens (thiggens?)
Posted by Word Camel on October 11, 2002 In Reply to: Re:
Another think coming - the plot thickens (thiggens?) posted by Myra Gratin
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?"
: Yes,
I agree - it is deliberately ungrammatical. Apropos of nothing in particular,
a colleague of mine always signs himself 'evil ditto lad' when agreeing with something
- it's an anagram of his name.
: I've only ever heard this as 'think' and, until
now, wasn't aware there was any debate about it. No evidence on offer from here,
but doesn't the think version have the advantage that it makes sense whereas the
thing version doesn't? What would the thing be but another thought anyway?
I
don't see that "thing" doesn't make sense. After all, the thing could be an event
or a rude awakening and needn't be simply another though. I actually had never
come across the "think" version until this discussion, but then it's not something
I recall seeing in print. Especially in the United States where consonants tend
to be softer than the UK, I think one might be hard pressed to tell the difference
between the two versions just by listening.
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