Re: Another
think coming - the plot thickens (thiggens?)
Posted by Bookworm on October 11, 2002 In Reply to: Re:
Another think coming - the plot thickens (thiggens?) posted by Word Camel
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.
For what it's worth, this is from The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn:
Rot him, I forgot he was a preacher. I see I was up a stump again, so
I played another chicken bone and got another think.
|