@amphetamine
The two terms I saw in linguistic research papers on the subject were "freezes" and "irreversible binomials" so I kinda kludge them together for clarity.

@supergoose The world and how people relate to it are full of all kinds of strange and wonderful things.

Freezes are just one tiny sliver of idiomatic language. Another really cool one is adjective order:

https://twitter.com/MattAndersonNYT/status/772002757222002688

Ooh yeah! I remember something like that too, but I would not have been able to recount it before this digital @paragate greyish rectangular 3-minute-old short helpful toot.

(helpful was supposed to be opinion, but it fulfills purpose too, I guess... oh well. I tried)

Haha!

@paragate

@keiyakins Dr. Seuss, and for the same reason 'Bacon and Eggs' isn't completely frozen. Meat comes before non-meat, but main dish comes before side? 'Bangers and Mash' are an example of the former winning out "spaghetti and meatballs" the second.

@keiyakins But even in their ambiguous state "eggs and bacon' and 'eggs and ham' always sound a little more... provocative? Maybe that's why the good Dr. chose it.

@Satsuma
Yea there's a whole host of different rule all is competition.