The Top 12 Great Unsolvable Mysteries
of Language

12 If you have a bunch of odds and ends
and you get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

11 Why do people, inviting me to an event, say to wear a "shirt and tie"?
The tie I can understand, but are they afraid I might show up without a shirt? Why don't they mention other clothing, like "And don't forget to wear socks and pants"?

10 How come there's a name for every finger but not for every toe?
You've got the thumb, the index finger, the middle finger, the ring finger and the little finger. But on your feet between the big and baby toes, there's no proper names for the appendages. It's embarrassing having to tell a doctor you've got a pain in the little piggy that had roast beef.

9 What's so great about being "cheap at half the price"?
Wouldn't half the price always be a lot better deal than the price they're asking?

8 When did "incidences" become a word?
It used to make me secretly laugh at bad grammar when I heard it, but it's getting so I catch even television newscasters using it now. Hey, fellas, it's one incident, two incidents. The occurrence or frequency of something is its incidence. There are no incidences. As in, "The incidence of incidents in which people use 'incidences' when they mean 'incidents' is increasing."

7 When planes almost crash into each other, why is it called a near miss?  
Isn't it a near hit?

6 What's with being "head over heels" in love?
Isn't your head usually higher than your heels? Now falling "heels over head", that would be something.

5 Why do we talk of "false pretences"?
Are there any true pretences?

4 Why is having a temper the same as losing your temper?
Sounds like a George Carlin routine: "I lost my temper once. I was told I shouldn't do that that. So I got it back and I really had a temper for a while. But that was worse they told me. So I got rid of it altogether and, when people asked me if I still had a temper, I'd tell them I'm really out of temper now. Ooh, that's awful, they said, you really should learn to keep your temper...."

3 Why can a grown woman refer to her "girlfriends"
while a guy cannot refer to his buddies as "boyfriends" — without implying, uh, a different kind of relationship?

2 Why are pants (or trousers or undershorts) plural?
Why do you always buy a "pair" of pants? Because you have two legs, you say? But you have two arms too but when was the last time you donned a pair of shirts? Besides, what would you say a one-legged man wears — a pant?

And the Number One great unsolvable mystery of language:

How can people who say they "could care less" mean exactly
the same thing as the people who say they "couldn't care less"?