Some expressions that never made sense to me

How does cutting off one's arm spite one's face? (Edit: I had this wrong. It is "nose.")

How does an exception "prove" a rule?

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SumKindaMunster · 51-55, M

The term is actually "Cutting one's nose off, to spite your face."
Does it make more sense with the correct vernacular?

The exception proves the rule, because if there is an exception, that means everyone else is conforming, therefore that "proves" the rule.

DrWatson · 70-79, M

@SumKindaMunster Ah. Nose makes more sense.

And yes, I do understand what you are saying about the exception and everyone else conforming, but the saying still does not click for me. Oh well!

4meAndyou · F

"'The exception that proves the rule ' is a legal maxim, established in English law in the 17th century. It was written in Latin, the language of international law: Exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis, which can be translated as “ exception confirms the rule in the cases not excepted”.

https://psichologyanswers.com/library/lecture/read/420784-what-does-it-mean-to-say-the-exception-that-proves-the-rule

bijouxbroussard · F

I’d always heard the first one as "cutting of one’s nose to spite one’s face". That idiom, I believe, applies to doing something spiteful to others that backfires and hurts you as well.

DrWatson · 70-79, M

@bijouxbroussard Yes, I corrected my post. While the application makes sense, the saying still does not really convey that to me. But I am that way with lots of sayings like this.

Like wanting to have your cake and eat it too. Shouldn't it be "wanting to save your cake and eat it too?" I can't eat a cake that I do not have!

bijouxbroussard · F

@DrWatson That’s a funny one. My husband never quite accepted it; he’d say "you just want to have your cake and ice cream, too !" Logical—but wrong. 😊

bijouxbroussard · F

How does an exception "prove" a rule?

Precisely by being the exception, that is, so unusual that the opposite situation is more common.

JaggedLittlePill · 46-50, F

I think the saying is

To cut off ones nose to spite their face...

Not arm. 🤣

Lilnonames · F

Like "break a leg"

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