You've heard people use the phrase, "chomping at the bit." You've also heard people use the phrase, "champing at the bit." Well, I looked up both "champ" and "chomp" today, and they are synonyms. Either one works before "...at the bit."
...please don't make the mistake of saying "from whence," as in, "We shall send the lusty troll back from whence he came!"
"Whence" means "from where." Accordingly, "from whence" means "from from where." That doesn't make sense.
Stick with plain old "whence" and you'll be fine.
You probably saw this on Drudge -- a protester confronts Condoleezza Rice and shouts, "The blood of millions of Iraqis are on your hands!"
Condi should have responded, "I think you mean, 'The blood of millions of Iraqis IS on your hands.' Anyway, thanks for coming. Keep in touch."
Footnote: how the hell does a crazy lady with bloody hands get THAT close to the Secretary of State?
Oh, how I hate that phrase. It's just so...wrong. But you hear it all the time, and you can find it all over the web, too.
Here's the problem: taken literally, this phrase means, "If it isn't guaranteed, we'll give you your money back." But that's not what anyone means when they say it. What they mean is, "Your satisfaction is guaranteed. If you are not satisfied, we'll give you your money back."
If you insist on truncating the phrase, then try, "Satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back."
There endeth the lesson.
Sports talk radio is often the scene of atrocious grammar crimes. I just heard the same mistake, made by two different people, within the span of 30 minutes.
Case 1: "Oakmont is the toughest course on the tour, if not one of the top five."
Case 2: "Robert Horry is probably public enemy #1 in Phoenix, if not among the top few."
You see the problem? They're getting it backwards. Here are the corrected versions:
Case 1: "Oakmont is one of the five toughest courses on the tour, if not THE toughest course."
Case 2: "Robert Horry is among the top few public enemies in Phoenix, if not public enemy #1."
You get it? You need to go from wider to narrower, not vice versa.
