A Word, Please: When phrases lose their popularity

Not long ago in this column, I talked a bit about the expression “step foot,” as in “I wouldn’t step foot in that store.” The first time I heard it, I was embarrassed for the speaker who, I was sure, meant “set foot.” The second, third and fourth times I heard it, I sensed a change was underway — and I’m not a fan of change (that’s an understatement). Eventually, I looked it up and learned that “step foot” is slowly gaining on “set foot,” whether I like it or not.

Figures of speech, like words, evolve.

Take “vicious cycle,” for example. For a solid century, there was no “vicious cycle” — at least not in published writing. Pretty much everyone who could get near a printing press agreed the expression was “vicious circle.”

The idea behind the expression, of course, is that of being stuck in a loop, a bad one. Merriam-Webster defines “vicious circle” as “a chain of events in which the response to one difficulty creates a new problem that aggravates the original difficulty.” As the 20th century dawned, “vicious circle” continued to dominate, but suddenly it had some competition. “Vicious cycle” was emerging as a contender. “Vicious circle” held onto its lead until just about a decade ago, when “vicious cycle” nosed ahead. At the same time, the original and originally correct expression “vicious circle” started to dive. I’m not optimistic about its future.

“Top up” is another term that caught my eye lately, and not in a good way. I started seeing it in travel articles pondering whether it’s worthwhile to buy airline miles to “top up” your existing balance enough to book a flight. My whole life, the expression I heard was “top off.” According to Merriam-Webster, “top off” is a phrasal verb that has two definitions: The first is “to end (something) usually in an exciting way.” So an athlete may top off their career with a final victory, or a nice dinner can be topped off with dessert and coffee. The second definition is similar to the first: “to fill (something) completely with a liquid.” Be it a mug of coffee or a tank of gas, when it’s not quite full and you fill it all the way, you’re topping it off.

“Top up,” meanwhile, was a perfectly fine way to say “top off” if you’re British. But it wasn’t for us, I thought. We were top-off people.

Turns out that’s not quite right. “Top up” has been in print as long as “top off,” and though the American version has always been more popular in American publishing, “top up” has never been far behind.

I was wrong about that, but I was even more wrong about “You’ve got another think coming.” I couldn’t understand how anyone could make the embarrassing mistake of using “think” in this expression.

Obviously, the correct version was “You’ve got another thing coming.”

I never considered the context. The expression follows a stated or implied statement of “If you think X …” so “another” makes sense because you’ve already had one think. Of course, a think is a thing. So it’s not wrong to say you’ve got another thing coming. And that’s lucky for modern English speakers, because Ngram Viewer shows that “another think coming” started to decline in popularity about 10 years ago while “another thing coming” is becoming more popular than ever — just when I was getting used to “think.”

For me, there are two takeaways from these trends. One, the language will keep changing. And two, change will continue to annoy me.

— June Casagrande is the author of “The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.” She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.