Comment on How come fat chance and slim chance both mean the same thing?
Diddlydee@feddit.uk 1 week ago
They don’t mean the same thing as I understand them. Slim chance means there’s a chance but fat chance means practically no chance.
Comment on How come fat chance and slim chance both mean the same thing?
Diddlydee@feddit.uk 1 week ago
They don’t mean the same thing as I understand them. Slim chance means there’s a chance but fat chance means practically no chance.
daychilde@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Depends on context. “Slim chance” might technically allow for a small chance, but a lot of the time it’s used, it’s used to indicate that the speaker considers there to be no actual chance. Like if you say “That’s probably not gonna work” you probably actually mean “I believe that is going to not work”.
But this discussion is interesting, because I’d imagine “fat chance” only came about as a sarcastic way of saying slim/no chance. I’m pretty sure it’s like “disgruntled” where nobody is actually gruntled. Language is delightful. :)