Tide Me Over

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sharon in Chula Vista.

Hiya, Sharon.

Hello, Sharon.

What are you doing?

Well, I am. I’m working, actually.

But I’m happy to be able to speak with you guys.

Oh, great. So you have the kind of job where you can slip off and make a phone call?

Absolutely.

Good.

She works at a phone bank.

Right. Thank goodness, no.

No, okay.

Well, what’s up?

Well, I’ve got a question.

I was talking with a friend, and we both used the same common saying, and we found out we were saying it differently.

And you’ve probably heard, well, that will tide me over until dinner.

Like if you’re going to have a snack and it will tide you over, something will tide you over in some future time.

And it turns out she says, tie me over, as in T-I-E, and I say, tide me over, T-I-D-E.

So she thinks it’s like when you tie a bow, two ends of a ribbon together, and they meet.

And I was thinking more like, I don’t know, the ocean tide comes in and out?

I really don’t know.

It was kind of a weird saying when I thought about it.

Is there money on the line?

A bed of some sort?

Dinner?

Car wash?

No, not too much money.

Maybe our friendship, but…

Well, that’s worth an unlimited amount, so we can’t put a price on that.

Maybe just the pride of being right.

Well, you’ll be happy when we tell you that it is tide me over.

Okay.

With a D, T-I-D-E.

Wow.

And it comes from sailing or seafaring, and it’s an expression that you might use when there’s an obstruction in the waterway, say a sandbar or something, some kind of barrier, and you wait for the tide to come in to lift your boat up over that obstruction.

Oh, okay.

It’s pretty straightforward.

Okay.

Sharon, is your friend a poetic person?

I mean, I’ve never heard that.

She is very poetic.

Oh, maybe that explains it.

One of the things that happens in American English in particular is that we often swallow our Ds.

So I can really see how you might pick up that phrase, tide me over or tide you over, and the D would almost disappear.

So you might think it’s not there, and it might sound like tie me over or tie you over.

And my friend speaks flawless English, but initially she did come to this country, and English is officially her second language.

Where did she come from?

Although it’s now her first language, but I could see, you know, learning a language, how you could just hear, tie me over instead of tied.

Oh, right.

What was her nationality?

Taiwanese.

Taiwanese, all right.

Oh, well, yeah, just tell her it’s tied me over and shake her hand and make her buy you dinner.

All right, thank you so much.

All good then, Sharon?

You’re welcome, bye-bye.

All right, thanks, Sharon.

Bye-bye.

It’s funny.

It’s not really offensive, tie me over.

It doesn’t really cause all the sirens to go off, does it?

No, it doesn’t.

No, not at all.

I like it, tie me over.

Tie me over.

It sounds a little naughty.

I thought you were going to ask her if her friend was from Tide One.

No, I’m allergic to those things.

I know, puns, I know.

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