Timeline for What is this type of idiom called: "I know he's not the smartest person in the world, but..."
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
20 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 9, 2015 at 7:24 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/619044461260226560 | ||
| Jul 8, 2015 at 3:01 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jul 8, 2015 at 16:58 | |||||
| Jul 2, 2015 at 18:09 | comment | added | David Garner | @Nicole, that's reminded me of my favourite: "He's three coupons short of a toaster." | |
| Jul 2, 2015 at 12:19 | history | edited | Philip Devine | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 249 characters in body
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| Jul 2, 2015 at 0:48 | comment | added | matt | I'm a little confused because your example depends on the context. The speaker could be talking to someone who's underestimating the prospective student and clarifying that although he's not particularly smart, he's not particularly dumb, either. I don't think the speaker is necessarily implying that "[the prospective student is] not smart at all." | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 20:36 | comment | added | shoover | In the Southern USA, we would add ", bless his heart" between "world" and ", but", or at the beginning of the sentence: english.stackexchange.com/a/164459/49890 | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 17:09 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jul 2, 2015 at 16:28 | |||||
| Jul 1, 2015 at 16:50 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | possible duplicate of "You could do worse than [x]" | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 16:46 | answer | added | Kevin Workman | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 14:29 | comment | added | Tushar Raj | @Nicole: You missed 'He's not the sharpest tool in the shed' | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 14:11 | comment | added | John Lawler | It's a Negative Polarity Item; specifically, a member of the open "minimal degree" class (e.g, He didn't drink a drop/say a word/know a thing, not the sharpest pencil in the box, not the simplest idea to understand, etc.) | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 13:59 | history | edited | Tushar Raj | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 9 characters in body; edited tags
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| Jul 1, 2015 at 13:44 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | If you're into Lit Crit terminology, it's litotes. If you're an ordinary native speaker, it's understatement. I'm both, so my choice of term would depend on who I'm talking to. | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 13:30 | vote | accept | Philip Devine | ||
| Jul 1, 2015 at 13:07 | comment | added | Nicole | There are various idioms similar to the one DRF suggested. "He's not the brightest bulb" and "He's not the brightest crayon in the box" are pretty common. There's also the "He's a few _____ short of a _____" construction: for example, "He's a few cards short of a full deck." | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 12:57 | answer | added | Tushar Raj | timeline score: 34 | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 12:54 | comment | added | DRF | In that case maybe you would prefer "He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer". Less of a hyperbole very similar meaning. | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 12:53 | answer | added | Centaurus | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jul 1, 2015 at 12:51 | review | First posts | |||
| Jul 1, 2015 at 13:34 | |||||
| Jul 1, 2015 at 12:49 | history | asked | Philip Devine | CC BY-SA 3.0 |