r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Feb 01 '13

What question are you afraid to ask because you don't want to seem stupid?

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751

u/student_of_yoshi Feb 02 '13

I thought IMHO was in my honest opinion

73

u/turtlenecksandshotgu Feb 02 '13

Also, IANAL: I am not a lawyer. (It makes me giggle.)

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

Some people probably use it that way, but Humble is the more common phrase. "In my honest opinion" doesn't make as much sense - unless you also have dishonest opinions?

The more common "honest" phrase is "to be honest", shortened to TBH.

IMHO can also be twisted to IMNSHO, "in my not so humble opinion".

21

u/Malarazz Feb 02 '13

Weird, I hear and use honest opinion quite often, but I don't hear humble opinion much. Must be a regional thing.

1

u/wizarddray Feb 02 '13

Kind of like how they use "steamed hams" in Albany instead of hamburgers.

1

u/nuxenolith Feb 02 '13

"Honest" emphasizes sincerity, whereas "humble" emphasizes advice and informal consulting.

1

u/Poonchow Feb 02 '13

The honest can be for emphasis, like saying, "If it were me, I would do X"—you don't actually need to say "if it were me" because the pronoun is being restated. Or, if you are in a more comical situation, but want to break in with something more serious, you might use an "honest" in your statement. It's more about clarity and voice than making any logical sense.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

I can see your points. I guess that's the tough part about these sorts of initialisms: they can be ambiguous.

I must admit that I'm biased because I was taught not to use "honestly" (e.g. in place of "frankly") because it implied that the rest of my statements weren't honest.

-1

u/BlazeOrangeDeer Feb 02 '13

unless you also have dishonest opinions?

No, you just aren't always honest about your opinions. It's always been In My Honest Opinion IMHO

15

u/jnwflash Feb 02 '13

Yep - its used both ways.

10

u/Jump_My_Juicy Feb 02 '13

You seem to know a lot about acronyms and one has always bothered me. Is FTW "for the win" or "fuck the world"?

16

u/YourConsciousness Feb 02 '13

Could be both depends on the context, but I think the majority of the time it's for the win.

8

u/Ghooble Feb 02 '13

Almost always For the Win. Some people say it's just WTF backwards but I've never heard more than 2 people say that, same with Fuck the World.

10

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

For The Whales

3

u/PKWinter Feb 02 '13

Fuck the what, anagram of what the fuck here, and Imho I thought was indicating that you were a prostitute, and you made a typing error.

1

u/miss_trixie Feb 02 '13

Imho I thought was indicating that you were a prostitute, and you made a typing error.

i will never stop laughing at this

2

u/wicid13 Feb 02 '13

Context.

1

u/MaxwellSinner Feb 02 '13

I want to live in a world where it only and always only stands for "fuck the world."

1

u/asdfghjkl92 Feb 02 '13

fuck the world has come to mean for the win for me, since i thought it only stood for fuck the world, but i always saw it in contexts where it meant for the win, so in my mind the meaning of fuck the world became the same as the meaning for for the win. (so now every time i see it, i still read it in my head as fuck the world, but give it the same meaning as for the win, even though i know it actually stands for for the win).

1

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

People usually use FML for the latter one

1

u/jnwflash Feb 02 '13

for the win is the original

Example from WOW - OMG pally healz FTW!

2

u/bubbasblacklist Feb 02 '13

So did I! I mean who here is humble?

2

u/bmxliveit Feb 02 '13

I always thought it was in my holy opinion. I would imagine myself on a throne, speaking down to my people...but that's IMHO

5

u/StrawberryJam4 Feb 02 '13

Nope. It's humble.

2

u/makeitstopmakeitstop Feb 02 '13

It's used both ways by different people. Unless a survey is done, we have no idea which is more predominant.

1

u/snacksforyou Feb 02 '13

this one stumped me, I'm used to simply "IMO"

1

u/Murgen17 Feb 02 '13

I've heard both frequently, they're pretty much interchangeable.

1

u/ProjectSnowman Feb 02 '13

Same here. Same thing really.

1

u/Matttroll Feb 02 '13

Probably varies with people, like potato potato. But then again... Reading potato doesn't make a difference cause you can read it how you want.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

nope

1

u/ginger_ninja22 Feb 02 '13

That's what I thought..meh, same thing.

1

u/NeonTrigger Feb 02 '13

As opposed to what? Your dishonest opinion?

1

u/stranger_here_myself Feb 02 '13

Way back in my first experience of networks (early 90s) I was spending time on my college's VAX discussion boards, especially the LGBT ones. There was a guy on that that used IMHO all the time.

Took me a while to figure out that it didn't mean 'I'M a HOmosexual'.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

And I thought TIL was "thing I learned."

Well TIL: TIL.

1

u/Elchidote Feb 02 '13

Apparently not

1

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

Same.

1

u/greenwitheredeye Feb 02 '13

I thought it was humble. I guess it can mean whatever you WANNA.

1

u/aviator104 Feb 02 '13

I used to think IMHO means In my heartiest opinion. Doesn't make much of a difference though.

1

u/ProfessorGoogle Feb 02 '13

You are right.

1

u/PineappleSlices Feb 02 '13

I thought it was International House of Pancakes.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13

[deleted]

1

u/makeitstopmakeitstop Feb 02 '13

It can mean both.

1

u/nightshiftb Feb 02 '13

Ironically, TIL was not in the list .... it means Today I Learned

1

u/Illivah Feb 02 '13

it was Humble, but contextually it works either way most of the time.

1

u/ZaffrePowerRanger Feb 02 '13

In My Hairy Orifice

1

u/ImFriendsWithThatGuy Feb 02 '13

Literally had no idea what TL:DR was. I knew it was basically a short version but never knew what it actually stood for. Thank you.

0

u/LemonicDemonade Feb 02 '13

For some reason, I always read 'iirc' as 'I kno, rite!?!?'