Subscribean Ayn Rand website (where it is accused to violating the "law of identity")That link's a little disappointing. It's just a guy asking if it violates that "law", and a bunch of other people answering in typical ways (the typically right ways and the typically wrong ways).
"another think coming" is just utterly retarded, nearly as bad as "for all intensive purposes".Hmmmm? "You've got another think coming" has a clear meaning, regardless of whether you think it's grammatical or not. And that clear meaning matches the phrase's actual usage in context.
since when is think used as a noun by adults?Since (at least) the early 19th Century, according to the OED.
plus a "k" just before a hard "c", that's just ugly in the mouth.Which is exactly why a lot of people think it's "thing".
Any design consultant who thinks he is going to get British Leyland right by himself on his own has got another think coming.
Okay, so then if zero can be equal to .000000000000..., is positive number x divided by zero = infinity?No. Positive number x divided by zero is undefined.
Really? Awesome. Then why is it taught as x/0 = zero?Whoever taught you this has another think coming.
on think vs thing, it doesn't really matter which is the first usage, or which makes more objective sense - for mine is an aesthetic objection!Sure, now that your complaints about first usage ("since when is think used as a noun") and making objective sense ("it's as bad as 'for all intensive purposes'") have been shot down, yours is an aesthetic objection.
Well, the "thing" coming is a realization, or a bad surprise or etc.And what other is the "another" in "another thing" referring to?
"another think" seems to suggest either that the thinker is in some humorous sense owed a rethinkingNo, that's not true. It means that the thinker's thought is egregiously wrong.
well, what the fuck is an intensive purpose? it's crude in its flabby imprecision.That's not aesthetics. That's usage. You just said, a moment ago, you didn't care about whether it "makes objective sense" or not.
you don't think a usage seeming "crude" is an aesthetic complaint?In the sense that "k followed by c sounds bad" is an aesthetic complaint? No, certainly not.
To be grammatically correct, surely the expression would have to be 'If you think X, you've got another thought coming'Except, as noted several times in this thread and elsewhere, "think" has been used as a noun for hundreds of years at least.
in this case we have the "crudity" of "for all intensive purposes" offending against my sense of how language hangs together.No, it offended your sense of objective meaning ("what the fuck is an intensive purpose?", you asked, when pressed to state how the phrase was aesthetically crude).
At times like this, I usually turn to the lyrics of Judas Priest songs for answers. Their 1982 hit "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" clearly illustrates that it's "thing" and not "think." And their unreleased acoustic number ".999... ≠ 1 You Crazy Bitch" settles the other big controversy in this thread.Well, you might think that if you were a neophyte, but upon closer inspection, if you play ".999... ≠ 1 You Crazy Bitch" backwards, you will hear that:
It's "think", not "thing", we were making a scathing commentary on mishearings in langauge. And we were lying about the .9 repeating thing. Kill yourself! Kill yourself!
How about: If you expect to get this (such-and-such) thing, you've got another thing coming.You've retrofitted the sentence in an attempt to support your view, replacing "if you think" with "if you expect to get this thing".
To those who prefer the low nutrition of simply mouth feel, you've got another thin coming.You've got another think, um, ing. Yes, that's it, you've got another thinking.
So, besides in the phrase "another think coming" how often is think used as a noun anyway?Not often. But, so? And anyway, sometimes. From the OED:
As for anyone criticism the post-hoc explanation of how "another thing coming" makes sense: just because it's post-hoc doesn't change the fact that it also makes sense.First: I didn't say it didn't make sense. I asked for how it made more sense. I asked this of people who were saying things like "'another think coming' is utterly retarded".
Check your unabridged: a "think" is not the same thing as a "thought" -- it means "The act or an instance of deliberate or extended thinking; a meditation."Oxford English Dictionary, "think (noun)" definition 2a:
What one thinks about something; an opinion.
where we studied proofs (which is actually LOGIC, but thats the way they do it here in the states), .999...=1 BUT 1.999... DoesNotEqual 2 and neither does 2.9999=3. and etc.The reason that you forget why, exactly, is because it's completely false.
apparently it only works for .999...
go figure.
but i forget why, exactly.
The last two of these are surely obsolete uses. I've never in my life heard the word 'think' used in this manner.Yes you have. You just thought the person was saying "thing".
The focus is on "thing" not the verb. You want/think/expect one THING; you're going to get another.Again, the phrase is most commonly used following "if you think".
I missed Flunkie's reply on preview and concede that some people use the phrase "another think coming" in very specific situations that make more sense than "another thing coming".You've got that exactly backwards.
Funny enough, I think you've got it backwards. All thinks are things but not all things are thinks.Did I say that all things are thinks?
vronsky: And for the record, it is "She knows just what it takes to make a crow blush." NOT "And she knows just what it takes to make a pro blush" in the song Bette Davis Eyes.I'm just going to assume you're trying to be funny, because it actually is "make a pro blush".
hincandenza: ...in 2007, using "another think coming" at this point might be so weird as to distract the listener from even focusing on your content. Conclusion: using "another think coming" disrupts communication, while "another thing coming" ensures communication. QED.I'd never heard of the "thing" variant of this phrase before today. I find it so weird that it distracts me from the content. I find that it disrupts communication. Whatever is more common today, whatever the true origin of the phrase, your argument only works if everyone is just like you. And we're not.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 7:03 AM on September 30, 2007