Is this a kind of idiom?
June 27, 2013 8:04 AM Subscribe
In a film,a teacher says to a student who is going to fight with a classmate. "Tidd! You take one more step and you'll think you were born in detention. Get back to your seat." What does "born in detention" mean? I googled it and I only found some articles like,"Uncertain future awaits babies born in detention.." So is this a sort of exaggerated expression of "being detained"?
And is this a common phrase in your country?
Detention is a common punishment by which kids who misbehave have to sit in a classroom after school and do homework, or chitchat, or whatever (strictness varies by teacher) for a certain period of time, like 40 minutes or so. "Born in detention" would mean, i'm going to assign you to so long a detention period it will feel like the same number of years you've been alive.
posted by bleep at 8:07 AM on June 27, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by bleep at 8:07 AM on June 27, 2013 [4 favorites]
That's not a common phrase in the U.S., but it's easy to understand for a U.S. audience.
"Detention" is (or at least used to be) a common punishment in U.S. schools, where the offender must stay after school in a particular room, usually doing either homework or some sort of penance-related makework (e.g., writing out "I will not interrupt the teacher" 1000 times). See The Breakfast Club for a version of this. The length of time in detention is generally related to the seriousness of the offense, measured in hours or days. So the teacher was saying, "I will give you so much time in detention that you will forget the time before you were in detention."
posted by Etrigan at 8:08 AM on June 27, 2013 [13 favorites]
"Detention" is (or at least used to be) a common punishment in U.S. schools, where the offender must stay after school in a particular room, usually doing either homework or some sort of penance-related makework (e.g., writing out "I will not interrupt the teacher" 1000 times). See The Breakfast Club for a version of this. The length of time in detention is generally related to the seriousness of the offense, measured in hours or days. So the teacher was saying, "I will give you so much time in detention that you will forget the time before you were in detention."
posted by Etrigan at 8:08 AM on June 27, 2013 [13 favorites]
Well just think about it. Your whole life will be detention, so it's as though you were born there, since you can't remember a time that you weren't there.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:08 AM on June 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:08 AM on June 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
Detention is a form of punishment common in some American schools. Basically, the student stays during lunch, after school or (more rarely) comes in on the weekend and has to sit quietly in a room while supervised by a teacher or administrator. Teachers "give detention" to a student, which means they tell them that they will have to "serve detention" at a later time.
When the teacher says, "You'll think you were born in detention," it is an exaggeration that means "I will give you so much detention that you feel like you've been there your entire life."
posted by muddgirl at 8:08 AM on June 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
When the teacher says, "You'll think you were born in detention," it is an exaggeration that means "I will give you so much detention that you feel like you've been there your entire life."
posted by muddgirl at 8:08 AM on June 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
"Detention" here is referring to a type of punishment for students. The "born in" part of the threat means that the student will be spending a LOT of time in detention.
It is a common phrase/punishment in the U.S. anyway, and there is a cult movie set in detention, The Breakfast Club.
posted by payoto at 8:08 AM on June 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
It is a common phrase/punishment in the U.S. anyway, and there is a cult movie set in detention, The Breakfast Club.
posted by payoto at 8:08 AM on June 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
A student who caused trouble or broke a rule would be assigned to "go to detention" which is usually time that must be put in either during free periods or after school with a teacher in a classroom or other detention area. For more offenses, the time that must be served langthens. In the movie The Breakfast Club, students have to come in for detention on the wekeend. So the threat "You'll think you were born in detention" basically is a threat of assigning a lot of time for students to serve in detention, basically as if that place would be so familiar it would be your home.
posted by jessamyn at 8:09 AM on June 27, 2013
posted by jessamyn at 8:09 AM on June 27, 2013
It's not an idiom, but more of an American school culture thing.
OK, so traditionally most high schools have a penalty for disruptive students called "detention". In the media it's usually depicted as a special room you're sent to where you have to do dull busy work like writing one sentence over and over or copying out a passage or writing an essay about what you did wrong. (In my own experience it tends to be set at a certain time, so you have to go to school on Saturday to do your detention, like in The Breakfast Club, or you have to go to school early on a determined day or stay late. But put a pin in that.)
The teacher is basically telling the student, "I'm going send you to detention so long that you're going to forget you were ever anywhere else."
posted by Sara C. at 8:09 AM on June 27, 2013 [4 favorites]
OK, so traditionally most high schools have a penalty for disruptive students called "detention". In the media it's usually depicted as a special room you're sent to where you have to do dull busy work like writing one sentence over and over or copying out a passage or writing an essay about what you did wrong. (In my own experience it tends to be set at a certain time, so you have to go to school on Saturday to do your detention, like in The Breakfast Club, or you have to go to school early on a determined day or stay late. But put a pin in that.)
The teacher is basically telling the student, "I'm going send you to detention so long that you're going to forget you were ever anywhere else."
posted by Sara C. at 8:09 AM on June 27, 2013 [4 favorites]
Detention = after-school punishment.
Detention hall was held in the cafeteria after school, everyone sitting a seat or two apart, no talking, no fooling around, homework in front of you and IN PROGRESS, the entirety of the scene patrolled by the biggest, baddest vice-principal in the high school.
Punishment? You want punishment? I'll make your after-school existence miserable. I'll make it your life. I'll make the sentence so severe you'll think you were BORN there, mister.
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:09 AM on June 27, 2013
Detention hall was held in the cafeteria after school, everyone sitting a seat or two apart, no talking, no fooling around, homework in front of you and IN PROGRESS, the entirety of the scene patrolled by the biggest, baddest vice-principal in the high school.
Punishment? You want punishment? I'll make your after-school existence miserable. I'll make it your life. I'll make the sentence so severe you'll think you were BORN there, mister.
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:09 AM on June 27, 2013
Detention is common in the US, too, and it is referred to as such.
The use of a "you'll think you were born in _____!" structure is common enough, but you wouldn't really hear it every day. The idea is that you will spend so much time there, that there would presumably forget all of your life until that point.
See also: "I'll slap you so hard that your children will be born dizzy."
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:11 AM on June 27, 2013 [6 favorites]
The use of a "you'll think you were born in _____!" structure is common enough, but you wouldn't really hear it every day. The idea is that you will spend so much time there, that there would presumably forget all of your life until that point.
See also: "I'll slap you so hard that your children will be born dizzy."
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:11 AM on June 27, 2013 [6 favorites]
Re: the articles that came up when you were googling, those do not discuss the exaggerated threat that has been described in this thread. Those articles are most likely about babies born to women prisoners/detainees, and have nothing to do with the "detention" that is a part of American k-12 education.
posted by elizardbits at 8:12 AM on June 27, 2013 [22 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 8:12 AM on June 27, 2013 [22 favorites]
Adding to elizardbits' point, "detention" generally means a state in which someone is being detained. This can cover many situations. "Detention" in school is just one form of detention.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:39 AM on June 27, 2013
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:39 AM on June 27, 2013
Born in detention = person has been in detention so long for so many times that it seems like that person was born there and has never left
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 8:43 AM on June 27, 2013
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 8:43 AM on June 27, 2013
Since I'm guessing you're not a native speaker (based on your profile location), I'll also add that
- "detention" is a fairly formal word, coming from "to be detained", also formal. In regular speech people would say "to be kept", "to be held". Detain/detention implies that it's being done by someone with power over you: a cop, a teacher/principal, or maybe your boss. Despite this, almost every teenager in the U.S. uses this word, commonly in the phrase "I/he/she got detention", which is a little bit odd grammatically, but widely used.
- finding extravagant, clever, ways to express "you're going to be punished for a long time" is also common in U.S. popular films and TV. One of the best ones I've heard was on the TV show "Law & Order", where the cop says to the guy he just arrested "Your parole officer isn't even born yet", = before you even get out of prison, someone will have time to be born, grow up, and get a job working for the parole office. The listener has to take a bit of time to figure out what it means, which then gives them the pleasure of thinking "What? Oh, I get it!". I think there's a bit of that in your example, which which doesn't exist as an idiom "born in detention", though it's pretty easy for a native speaker to figure out.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:31 AM on June 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
- "detention" is a fairly formal word, coming from "to be detained", also formal. In regular speech people would say "to be kept", "to be held". Detain/detention implies that it's being done by someone with power over you: a cop, a teacher/principal, or maybe your boss. Despite this, almost every teenager in the U.S. uses this word, commonly in the phrase "I/he/she got detention", which is a little bit odd grammatically, but widely used.
- finding extravagant, clever, ways to express "you're going to be punished for a long time" is also common in U.S. popular films and TV. One of the best ones I've heard was on the TV show "Law & Order", where the cop says to the guy he just arrested "Your parole officer isn't even born yet", = before you even get out of prison, someone will have time to be born, grow up, and get a job working for the parole office. The listener has to take a bit of time to figure out what it means, which then gives them the pleasure of thinking "What? Oh, I get it!". I think there's a bit of that in your example, which which doesn't exist as an idiom "born in detention", though it's pretty easy for a native speaker to figure out.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:31 AM on June 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
Everyone else has answered this already, but I'd like to add that a teacher I had growing up used this phrase. This was Southeastern US (Georgia) if you're looking for more regional information.
She also used "I'm gonna stick to you like white on rice" when telling misbehaving kids she was going to watch them like a hawk. It's a phrase I've always loved.
posted by phunniemee at 9:40 AM on June 27, 2013
She also used "I'm gonna stick to you like white on rice" when telling misbehaving kids she was going to watch them like a hawk. It's a phrase I've always loved.
posted by phunniemee at 9:40 AM on June 27, 2013
Saying that someone was "born to hang" used to be a common way to describe a person who had a disposition likely to get them in an escalating amount of trouble. Detention is just a mild punishment metted out in the American school system designed to be unpleasantly boring, like timeout for younger children, but generally performed in a seperate room.
posted by Blasdelb at 10:01 AM on June 27, 2013
posted by Blasdelb at 10:01 AM on June 27, 2013
That pattern of speech is very widespread in the US but also has a very loose form and is usually adapted on the fly to fit the situation. Something along the lines of,
I will {action} {subject} so {word indicating large quantity such as hard, long, strong, or far} that {exaggerated threat indicating that the effects of the action will be extremely strong}.
For example, "I'll hit you so hard that not even Google will be able to find you." or "I'll hit you so hard that your kids will inherit the bruises." Google has more.
Possibly also related is the insult form:
{Subject} is so {insulting word} that {exaggerated description}.
Like these.
The "so ... that" construction and obvious exaggeration in the description are what sets this apart from normal speech.
I don't know if there's a formal name for this construction, hopefully if there is one then someone will chime in.
posted by anaelith at 3:52 PM on June 28, 2013
I will {action} {subject} so {word indicating large quantity such as hard, long, strong, or far} that {exaggerated threat indicating that the effects of the action will be extremely strong}.
For example, "I'll hit you so hard that not even Google will be able to find you." or "I'll hit you so hard that your kids will inherit the bruises." Google has more.
Possibly also related is the insult form:
{Subject} is so {insulting word} that {exaggerated description}.
Like these.
The "so ... that" construction and obvious exaggeration in the description are what sets this apart from normal speech.
I don't know if there's a formal name for this construction, hopefully if there is one then someone will chime in.
posted by anaelith at 3:52 PM on June 28, 2013
Yeah, the tricky idiom here is you'll think you were born X. It can be used positively:
Lashes so perfect -- you'll think you were born with them
After one of these coolers, you'll think you were born in the islands
Or negatively as in the detention/parole/jail/hanging examples.
It's dependent to a more broad meaning of "born" which is originally about class, e.g. "to the manor born", "born in the purple", born with certain advantages and expectations, and more generally means how something is a natural part of one's life -- "born to ride", Born to Run, Born to Be Bad, etc. So when you see this word used outside of a description of where someone was physically born it may be being used idiomatically to describe their circumstance, their life trajectory, or other abstract concepts.
posted by dhartung at 5:45 PM on June 29, 2013 [1 favorite]
Lashes so perfect -- you'll think you were born with them
After one of these coolers, you'll think you were born in the islands
Or negatively as in the detention/parole/jail/hanging examples.
It's dependent to a more broad meaning of "born" which is originally about class, e.g. "to the manor born", "born in the purple", born with certain advantages and expectations, and more generally means how something is a natural part of one's life -- "born to ride", Born to Run, Born to Be Bad, etc. So when you see this word used outside of a description of where someone was physically born it may be being used idiomatically to describe their circumstance, their life trajectory, or other abstract concepts.
posted by dhartung at 5:45 PM on June 29, 2013 [1 favorite]
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So by extension, the student will spend so much time after class in detention that they might think they were born there.
Common in UK.
posted by scruss at 8:07 AM on June 27, 2013 [11 favorites]