Learn English – Being at the wrong place at the wrong time – is it actually bad

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If you're at the wrong place at the wrong time, is this actually a bad thing? Don't the two negatives words result in a positive meaning? For instance, being at the wrong place at the right time wouldn't be good, and being at the right place at the wrong time, that too would have a negative result.

As I see it, being at the wrong place, at the wrong time, could result in the second negative cancelling out the first negative and therefore the phrase doesn't necessarily have a negative meaning, am I correct?

As an example, take a sales appointment. You go to the right place at the right time, that's good, you've got there OK. However you go the right place at the wrong time, and that's not good as you aren't expected, and if you go the wrong place at the right time, well, you've missed your appointment. Go the wrong place at the right time, doesn't mean you've missed the appointment though does it? It doesn't mean that you didn't get to the appointment.

Is this correct? Although it's generally seen as a negative phrase, it could be used positively? What would be the full implication of this, as all definitions I've seen give this phrase a completely negative meaning and don't take this into account.

Best Answer

I agree in this context with Spencer's comment that place and time are orthogonal concepts; however, this mathematical concept may be out of scope of an ELU discussion (I may be wrong though).

Let's start with a dictionary definition.

Cambridge Dictionary:

in the wrong place at the wrong time
in a situation where something bad happens to you because you are unlucky, not because you do anything wrong:
A storm can come up, and if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could get hurt.

The idiomatic definition is that someone in such a situation just got unlucky and this proves that your assumption is wrong.

Now, let's try to decompose it literally using an example of a cat wanting to take a nap. If the cat chooses a fireplace to do so, it is a wrong place in general; however, it may not be so when there is no fire therein and it is at near room temperature. Now, suppose someone decides to light up a fire there (and is somehow oblivious of the cat's presence). Lo and behold, it now also becomes the wrong time! Now, both negatives add up to more negative!

Also, consider the example accompanying the definition above: it mentions that one can get hurt if they are at the wrong place (at a place through which the eye of the storm passes) at the wrong time (when it does so).

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