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1.4 Things that are impossible to find. 1.5 Surprise that a rare or unlikely event has happened. ... There are many common idioms of improbability, or adynata, ...
Zimmer reacted to Mason by stating: "the 'having' part of the idiom seems to me to imply possession over a long period of time, rather than the transient cake-having that occurs during cake-eating". He concludes that it is ultimately not relevant to ponder over the logicality of crystallized, commonly used phrases.
Arrow paradox : If we divide time into discrete 0-duration slices, no motion is happening in each of them, so taking them all as a whole, motion is impossible. Aristotle's wheel paradox : Rolling joined concentric wheels seem to trace the same distance with their circumferences, even though the circumferences are different.
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
The Libersign, a political emblem of the U.S. Libertarian Party during the 1970s, features an arrow diagonally crossing the letters "TANSTAAFL." "No such thing as a free lunch" (alternatively, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch", "There is no such thing as a free lunch" or other variants, sometimes called Crane's law [1]) is a popular adage communicating the idea that it is impossible ...
A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one thing is actually offered. The term is often used to describe an illusion that choices are available. The best known Hobson's choice is "I'll give you a choice: take it or leave it", wherein "leaving it" is strongly undesirable.
Adynaton was a widespread literary and rhetorical device during the Classical Period.In the Eclogue of Plutarch, there is a long list of proverbs and the first section is titled ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΑΔΥΝΑΤΩΝ, consisting of proverbs that are built on adynaton. [5]
The idiom is commonly used in addiction recovery terminology to describe the reluctance of friends and family of an addicted person to discuss the person's problem, thus aiding the person's denial. Especially in reference to alcohol abuse, the idiom is sometimes coupled with that of the pink elephant, "the pink elephant in the room."