Fine tooth comb (and the moving hyphen)...

When you listen - and I mean really listen - to what people say (and how they say it), some phrases just jump out at you, grab you by the throat, slap you around, laugh at you, before running away giggling. One such phrase I just love is "fine-tooth comb", as in the cliche "going over something with a fine-tooth comb".

Except that no-one ever says it like that.

What they actually say is "going over something with a fine tooth-comb" (stressing the TOOTH bit). O...K... - so you're talking about a "tooth-comb, are you"? And that would be a comb for your teeth, would it? Not, errrrrrrm, a comb with fine teeth?

*siiiiiiiigh*

Oh well... what do I know about the English language anyway? Perhaps I should brush up my Latin (after all, I've even got my grandmother studying it, so why shouldn't I do it myself?) and make fun of Caesar's Gallic Wars instead? Oh puh-lease...