Anathematized Phrases

I recently realized that, there were some very commonly used English phrases, which just doesn’t make any sense to anyone, whatsoever. Oh, they are not the “F” words by the way, which really has no sense (only according to me) :).

Coming to the phrases I was talking about, how many of you use the phrase - “What the hell!” frequently? Well, at least I do. Though not being anything more than a gesticulation exclaimed, when you don’t like a particular thing or as a replacement to “What is it?”

Googling “what the hell” gave me this as the closest answer –

The earliest use in print recorded by editors of the Oxford English Dictionary comes from the 1920s. From a story handed down in my family (U.S.), I know the phrase was used in the late 19th century, if not earlier.
It might have come from "what IN hell...," similar to "what on earth...." That's speculation, though.

Doesn’t seem like the answer to my question!!! :) Still…

I got to read in another blog, talking about similar such phrases which makes no sense but was an interesting read.

That’s “Exponential Increase”. An exponent as we read, in our lower grades is “to the power of” something. Now if, 10 to the power of 2 equal to 100, similarly, 10 to the power .5 is 3.17. Both of them are exponentials yet so different. So, even the very word, “exponential increase” is so relative.

Business, when says we are aiming to increase our profits or revenue or anything, exponentially, it really doesn’t mean anything much. There’s nothing which gives you any idea of what does the business really aims at.

The whole intention of me to write this is why do we use such phrases, without much sense, especially when we use them in our conversation so liberally? Well I would just leave the topic here, and add on other such phrases which I come across and meanwhile try to stop using such phrases. ;)