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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Apr 2006
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Hi, is there a word or phrase for having no good choices or options. I heard someone say something like "sythian choice". I'm not sure what the actual word is but it refers to a scenario when you must choose between unfavorable options.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Between a rock and a hard place or another is damned if you do and damned if you don't. I'm not too sure there is a single word that expresses this particular frustration as it deserves.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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state of uncertainty or perplexity especially as requiring a choice between equally unfavorable options
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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there is hobson's choice (which is no choice at all)
--the story i've heard (could be true, could be just a story) is of an inn keepper named hobson who also had horses for hire.
you could ask for any particular horse, but what you got was hobson's choice. (take it or or leave it)
not quite the same as having no good choices, (sofie's choice?--from the book of the same name?)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>a choice between equally unfavorable options
a.k.a. a quandary, or plight
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
there is hobson's choice (which is no choice at all)
--the story i've heard (could be true, could be just a story) is of an inn keepper named hobson who also had horses for hire.
you could ask for any particular horse, but what you got was hobson's choice. (take it or or leave it)
not quite the same as having no good choices, (sofie's choice?--from the book of the same name?)
I thnk what you got was the horse closest to the door to the barn at the moment Hobson went looking for a horse. So it might not have been a bad horse, just the close horse.
Not to be confused with a hobson jobson.
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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To add to the other phrases: between the horns of a dilemma.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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> the close horse
well, at least it was well-dressed.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Up the crick without a paddle, is another one.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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hi stervius, and welcome. I think you might have heard something lile "a Scyllian choice", which is a reference to the Greek legend that is the origin of the expression noted by of Troy - between a rock and a hard place. The rock-dewlling monster was Scylla and Charybdis was a whirlpool: sailing the strait between them indeed left Odysseus no good options.
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