Winning English - Mastering Idioms, Slang, and References
To blow it • To mess up • To screw up • To choke • To err is human
Dear readers:
I must confess. I blew it. In the last post about time, I wrote, “The other side really needs what you selling, but they want a very low price.” It should be “what you are selling.” I left out the verb. I messed up, and I hope you’ll forgive me!
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash. Not a self-portrait, by the way.😄 (A “self-portrait” is a picture you take of yourself. It’s a fancy word for selfie.)
You might have guessed already that this issue is all about words for mistakes or errors.
Both “to blow it” and “to mess up” mean to make a mistake. “To screw up” means the same thing, but it’s a meaner way to say it.
By the way, these words can also be used in a slightly different way to mean to cause mistakes or errors. For example, if a business colleague is failing at a project, you might say, “I can’t tell if he is incompetent or if he is deliberately screwing it up.”
If you follow sports you know that sometimes a player performs very well for almost the entire game, then begins making a lot of mistakes near the end, maybe losing the game. Sometimes the player can’t help it. He or she just chokes.
“To choke” normally means to be unable to breathe because you have food trapped in your throat. But as a slang word, “to choke” means to fail to perform well at a task, especially when under a lot of psychological pressure.
This kind of “choking” can happen in any part of life. Maybe you’ve been preparing for an important business presentation for weeks. You practice and practice until it’s perfect. But on the day of the presentation, you can’t speak well. You start to look nervous and begin sweating. You can’t remember the topics you wanted to discuss. You have “choked”.
Of course, despite our best efforts, mistakes happen in life all the time. That’s why it can help to be compassionate toward ourselves and others. After all, to err is human, to forgive is divine.
The saying “to err is human, to forgive is divine” appeared in an essay by the English poet Alexander Pope in 1711 and has since become very common. (However, it had a slightly different wording and spelling. Click on the link to see examples of how the English language has changed over the centuries.)
“To err” is another way to say “to commit an error”. Divine is a word that means “like the gods or angels” - in other words, perfect and good. So, this saying encourages us to understand that all humans make mistakes, but we can be divine - that is, very good - if we choose to forgive people for their mistakes.
Thanks for reading Winning English! And many thanks to the reader who wrote in the comments to tell me about my mistake. Please, if you have any thoughts about Winning English, remember to comment on, and hopefully like, the posts. And, as always, if you like what you read, please tell a friend. Talk soon!