For me, it may be that the toilet paper roll needs to have the open end away from the wall. I don’t want to reach under the roll to take a piece! That’s ludicrous!

That or my recent addiction to correcting people when they use “less” when they should use “fewer”

  • Eiri@lemmy.world
    128·
    4 months ago

    Disagree. I’ve always understood it to mean approximately two. Usually 2-3; 4 isn’t outlandish.

    Unless that’s the meaning, the expression doesn’t have a reason to exist. So that’s how I decide to interpret it.

    • SoGrumpy@lemmy.ml
      96·
      4 months ago

      Wrong. A couple is two exactly. After the wedding: Oh look at the happy couple. There aren’t 3 or 4 people standing there, 2 people are standing there. A couple.

      To couple train carriages together means to attach two carriages together. There are more carriages behind that one, but they were all individually coupled together.

      • fross@lemmy.world
        64·
        4 months ago

        Starting a post with “Wrong.” and listing a few items that support your view is… Well it gives me Reddit energy, not a good thing. ;)

        Here are some counterexamples that negate it: “I’ll be ready in a couple of minutes”, “it’s a couple of miles away”.

        This does not always mean exactly two. I mean, if you just want to yell out “it always means exactly two!” Then that’s on you, but in the English language everyone else in the world uses, it often means two, but can also mean around but not exactly two, depending on the use case.

        • SoGrumpy@lemmy.ml
          11·
          4 months ago

          Look in any English language dictionary. Show me an entry that states a couple is more than two.

          I‘ll wait.

      • Eiri@lemmy.world
        74·
        4 months ago

        Aw come on, those are two very different meanings of the word in my book. As it happens, the couple of eggs I took out of the fridge aren’t in a romantic relationship.

        • SoGrumpy@lemmy.ml
          1·
          4 months ago

          Look in any English language dictionary. Show me an entry that states a couple is more than two

          I‘ll wait.

          • Eiri@lemmy.world
            2·
            4 months ago

            https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/couple-few-several-use

            Couple is used to refer to two things, but is also often used for a small number greater than two.

            by the 1500s, it was also being used in the phrase a couple of to refer to an indefinite but still small number of people or things

            Verdict: couple is used of small numbers most of the time, but usually at least two or more.

            So yeah, the meaning of “at least two but possibly a bit more than that” has been around for a loooooong time.

      • Welt@lazysoci.alEnglish
        11·
        4 months ago

        True. Otherwise we’d have no use for that stupid word ‘throuple’. We should call them fews.