Not Entirely Unlike
In the novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Arthur Dent tries to get a Nutrimatic drinks dispenser to produce a cup of tea. Instead, it invariably produces a concoction (which most people found unpleasant) that is "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea". One of the primary goals of the player, as Arthur Dent, in the computer game The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is to thwart the machine and find some decent tea, a mission that the player is constantly reminded of by the inventory item "no tea". According to the Jargon File, the briefer "not entirely unlike" has entered hacker jargon.
Read more about this topic: Phrases From The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Famous quotes containing the word not:
“List Lady be not coy, and be not cosen’d
With that same vaunted name Virginity,
Beauty is natures coyn, must not be hoorded,
But must be current, and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partak’n bliss,
Unsavoury in th’injoyment of it self
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
It withers on the stalk with languish’t head.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)