midas touch is a greek myth warning people about greed, yet we use it to describe someone who succeeds at what they do.
like we collectively learned the wrong lesson from it.
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What with the "WE" part?
I've never used it.
Only lawyers and people with an MBA say shit like that. The rest of us just call it being a greedy predatory prick.
Spanish speaking dude at my last work was talking about Trump, and said something akin to "he's got the mierdas touch!"
Mierda is the Spanish word for "shit".
Fuckin 10/10.
A large black t-shirt please.
A goose that lays eggs composed of heavy metals has serious health problems, yet we value it.
A chunk of gold the size and shape of a goose egg is like a hundred troy ounces I only need it to lay a couple and I'm set.
Troy? Those fuckers
What ? who uses it like that ?
There is a north american automobile break repair chain that has the jingle "Trust the Midas touch!"
It's always now right now.
They make tyres, right? Gold tyres seem like a tetrible idea
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20Midas%20touch
well I'll be fucked ! it is indeed supposed to be a malediction
I'm aware of the myth but still I have honestly never once heard it used another way.
I've heard it used by announcers to describe sports coaches.
It's like monopoly the board game. It was originally designed to show how terrible and parasitic landlords are as a concept, then hasbro got their hands on it and it became "yay capitalism, bankrupt all your friends".
when you have their money you don't need them as friends anymore.
He's got the Meidas touch,
But he touched it too much.
Goldmember!
"Can I paint his yoohoo gold? It's kinda my thing."
"...How about NO, you crazy, Dutch, bastard?!"
Yeah that is the modern usage, sadly, the complete opposite of what the original meaning was. Another example of this is "blood is thicker than water", meaning family should be held closer than friends. The original saying was "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb", literally meaning the opposite.
The “original” version of that quote is unattested and likely made up post facto
Well I learned something new today, I apologize for giving bad info.
I’ve never seen it used to describe being good at what they do. Can you provide an example?
Here is an example of someone pointing out that 'golden touch' based on Midas is misused in common usage today. Not sure if it is commonly used much anymore, but I remember it being very common in the 80s and 90s to describe someone who was successful at lots of different businesses.
https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-does-it-mean-to-have-a-golden-touch.htm
Cheers, thanks for providing an example
Huh. Well TIL people did misuse it. I've never seen it misused myself which is why I asked, thanks!
"Wow! They're pioneer of industry! They must have the Midas touch."
Oh sorry, I understood what you meant. Is there an example of this actually being used this way by a company or something?
The Midas automotive repair company had (has) the slogan "Trust the Midas touch" which definitely is a play on words using the myth. There used to be commercials where they would sing it at the end when I was a kid.
Who is "we" here? I've never used it that way, and I think I've nearly always seen it used correctly.
Welcome to Capitalism!
Classic example of the game telephone, played by millions through the ages....
Cultural tell, IMO.
It's also the slogan for a car repair chain. It's false advertising though, as they do not turn your car's muffler to gold.
I look at it as we as a society have reinforced the lesson with our modern day use. Of course the lesson falls on deaf (greedy) ears.