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OP
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Okay, I'm confused about something else. Recently I read something in which someone approvingly said, "He talks the talk and walks the walk."
Yet I have also heard this kind of approval expressed as, "He walks the talk."
Which is right? The latter makes more sense to me - seems to be saying, "He is a man of his word - his deeds match his promises."
But the former seems simply to praise someone for knowing how to speak the lingo (whichever kind of bafflegab you choose!) and walk in whatever is the current hip style...or something weird like that.
What do y'all think?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think you're right on both counts; though I think people use the former and mean the latter.
and I really like the word bafflegab!
formerly known as etaoin...
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OP
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thanks etaoin! That was kinda what I figgered.....Maybe using the longer sentence is like using a $5 word where a 50-cent one would do? or like inserting an extra syllable into a word (shame on me, I saw the word for this practice in AWAD and I've forgotten it! fifty lashes with a wet noodle for me) or making up a word completely that never previously existed, such as "expiration" instead of "expiry" in front of the word "date" or (o horrendous world!) asking someone what his "busyness quotient" is. or maybe it's just a silly something that doesn't make any sense when you stop and think about it.... 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Then there's he talks the talk but he doesn't walk the walk.
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OP
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Then there's he talks the talk but he doesn't walk the walk.
Which conjures up an image of a man sitting in an armchair by the fire, spinning tales of adventures he's never been on. (Or "on which he's never been," for Henry James sticklers!)
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Or He talks the talk, but can he walk the walk?
That's the usual place where I've seen the combination of talking and walking - in the negative, rather than the affirmative.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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I haven't heard of "He walks the talk", but doesn't "He talks the talk and walks the walk" mean that the peron is excactly right for a certain job? Maybe the two have different meanings?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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its not so much they are exactly right for anything, its that they are as they claim to be... i don't claim to be as pure as the driven snow, (and i am not) but certainly, politiacian, and preachers in the US have tried to claim a moral high ground, but their personal lives are filled with examples of less than stellar behavior.
someone who walks the walk and talks the talk, is someone who, has high standards (but freely admits when he has failed) and when he has failed, he takes action to atone. (especially if he expects others to be accountable before they are forgiven)
we would all like people of high moral character to be in public office, but alas, we can only elect men and women, not angels. Men and woman have laspes, these can be forgiven, what is harder to forgive is a "do as i say, not as i do' attitude. (and politically, its death to be found holding a do as say, not as i do attitude!
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enthusiast
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and politically, its death to be found holding a do as say, not as i do attitude!
Not that it stops them. 
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addict
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It is nothing special to talk the talk. Indeed, it would be considered a negative unless you also walk the walk. *We usually use "he's all talk" to describe someone who talks themselves up (physically, morally, whatever) and the challenge is "yeah, but can you walk (the walk)". I assume "he walks the talk" is merely a contraction of the original quote and hence easier to use. To ttt and wtw is to back up ones claims with actions. The quote is usually applied only when the claims are outlandish, and hence the wtw is usually in the negative.
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