Timeline for Is there a word analogous to 'shooting yourself in the foot'?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
28 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 18, 2020 at 17:09 | comment | added | Ruzihm | While it has a broader use, saying an action was a "blunder" is often used to describe a situation like this | |
| Oct 2, 2014 at 17:35 | comment | added | WS2 | @nmclean It would be interesting to discover if the metaphor existed before 1914. | |
| S Oct 2, 2014 at 15:50 | answer | added | yoniLavi | timeline score: 3 | |
| S Oct 2, 2014 at 15:50 | history | protected | CommunityBot | ||
| Oct 2, 2014 at 14:52 | answer | added | picciano | timeline score: 5 | |
| Oct 2, 2014 at 14:27 | comment | added | nmclean | @WS2 The base metaphor has always been understood: the irony of a tool designed for empowering the user being used for self-inflicted incapacitation. The only difference is whether it is intentional, and your claim that this difference makes the usage "incorrect" is debatable. | |
| Oct 2, 2014 at 14:22 | comment | added | WS2 | @njzk2 It sounds a downwardly circular argument to me. But I hear what you say. | |
| Oct 2, 2014 at 13:00 | comment | added | njzk2 | @WS2: Not really. But since communication is a matter of conventions, I must use the same conventions as the people I talk to, so that they understand what I am saying. | |
| Oct 2, 2014 at 9:48 | comment | added | Iain Galloway | Your first scenario is an example of the Streisand Effect (attempts to censor information can result in wider distribution of the information) named after Barbra Streisand:- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect | |
| Oct 2, 2014 at 7:00 | comment | added | WS2 | @njzk2 When ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise - I suppose. | |
| Oct 2, 2014 at 3:34 | answer | added | John | timeline score: -1 | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 21:55 | answer | added | Sparrow_Prince | timeline score: -3 | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 21:16 | comment | added | njzk2 | @WS2: The way it is consistently used and understood is the current sense, the original sense is of little importance. | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 20:35 | comment | added | Elliott Frisch | There's another common idiom, cutting off the nose to spite the face. | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 19:45 | vote | accept | zaczap | ||
| Oct 1, 2014 at 19:37 | history | edited | 200_success |
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| Oct 1, 2014 at 19:06 | comment | added | Blessed Geek | Self-foot-shooter. | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 18:40 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/517383465470525440 | ||
| Oct 1, 2014 at 18:27 | comment | added | WS2 | 'Shooting oneself in the foot' is a metaphor which is consistently misunderstood and used incorrectly. The practice dates from the First World War when soldiers on both sides were known to have deliberately given themselves a non-fatal wound (e.g. shooting themselves in the foot) as a way of getting repatriated from the front, where they faced almost certain death. | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 18:24 | comment | added | WS2 | What does 'editorializing' mean? Does it mean 'editing'? | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 18:10 | answer | added | Brendan Long | timeline score: 14 | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 17:43 | comment | added | Hot Licks | (And, continuing in the same vein, one could call such an event "failure to keep a stiff upper lip.") | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 17:41 | comment | added | Hot Licks | Regardless of the origin of "shooting oneself in the foot", "self-inflicted wound" may be appropriate to many of these situations. | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 16:44 | answer | added | anongoodnurse | timeline score: 6 | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 16:44 | answer | added | bib | timeline score: 34 | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 16:23 | answer | added | John Feminella | timeline score: 14 | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 16:16 | review | First posts | |||
| Oct 1, 2014 at 19:59 | |||||
| Oct 1, 2014 at 16:14 | history | asked | zaczap | CC BY-SA 3.0 |