I want to get a comb, made of the finest materials, with tines (if that is the right word) spaced apart roughly the width of human teeth. Then, when people use the phrase "I want to go through that with a fine-tooth comb" but stress it "fine tooth-comb" instead of "fine-tooth comb", I'll whip this comb out of my pocket and say "What? You mean one of these?".
-- hippo, Jun 01 2005

Answers.com http://www.answers....ciations-of-english
Non-native guide to mispronunciation. [Blumster, Jun 05 2005]

Baked by lemurs, apparently http://www.tigerhom...tage/tooth-comb.cfm
[Basepair, Jun 05 2005]

Hoorah! I want one - I *hate* it when they get the emphasis so stupidly wrong. Sure-fire success [hippo]!
-- coprocephalous, Jun 01 2005


incisive as ever.
-- po, Jun 01 2005


Hang on a minute, this isn't bad. You might have to custom make it for each individual, but if you made the teeth on the comb thin enough, you might be able to floss with this thing.
-- st3f, Jun 01 2005


hippo, you know of course that the expression was coined by the baleen whale hunters?
-- theircompetitor, Jun 01 2005


hmm? - baleen whale hunters?
-- hippo, Jun 05 2005


I'll put it in the glass with my tooth-brush.
-- wagster, Jun 05 2005


Finnish people can't help it. [+] Interesting link above.
-- Blumster, Jun 05 2005


Presumably the common mis- pronunciation is related to the use of the phrase "tooth-comb" (as in "go through it with a tooth-comb"). I don't know if "tooth-comb" makes any sense (is/was there a non-tooth comb?), but presumably the combination of "fine- tooth comb" and "tooth-comb" got merged to become "fine tooth-comb"?

Incidentally, there apparently is such a thing as a [non- hyphenated] tooth comb (link)
-- Basepair, Jun 05 2005



random, halfbakery