I can see it easily, except for Oedipus. They’re all about subverting the initial phrase but when people know the whole thing, they just shorten it to the start of the phrase.
New people come in, hearing only the start of the phrase and assume incorrectly what it’s referring to before passing that along.
This makes sense. Common usage shortened it because everyone knows it, but then it begins to be misunderstood and then misused because the shortened version makes more sense.
I can see it easily, except for Oedipus. They’re all about subverting the initial phrase but when people know the whole thing, they just shorten it to the start of the phrase.
New people come in, hearing only the start of the phrase and assume incorrectly what it’s referring to before passing that along.
This makes sense. Common usage shortened it because everyone knows it, but then it begins to be misunderstood and then misused because the shortened version makes more sense.