Aphorisms: they’re the world’s favorite way to let somebody else handle the thinking. We all turn to a time-tested saying or phrase from time to time. It’s not a crime or nothin’. But what if lots of our most common sayings have actual meanings that are the opposite of our intention? What if lots of our go-to words and phrases have nightmare historical origins? And when we find out our language has those dark secrets, what should we do next as responsible speakers?

On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt teams up with comedians Greg Edwards and Caitlin Gill for a trip back in time, back through vocabularies, and back to the basics of the English language. They’ll examine how history, slang, and surprising shifts in meaning can mess with our most trusted sayings and phrases, turning our ordinary speech into insane ahistorical nonsense.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/11-common-sayings-phrases-everyone-uses-wrong