Okay folks. Question time!
What's your favourite malapropism?
Today I learned that "spitting image" is a malapropism! But we're not sure if it comes from "spit and image" (from "he's the very spit of..." someone else), or - and I think this makes more sense - *spirit and image*, deformed over time. But so many forms have been used, no one knows for sure!
Other fun ones:
On tender hooks ("tenterhooks")
A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but you mean your mother.
What's your favourite?
@MLClark
There's a British comedian who did a whole show about how things are often misheard then repeated on the internet.
A couple of favourites from that:
Like a bowl in a china shop.
I don't like him and his elk.
😂 😂 😂
Oh, I howled at that last.
Sir!
SIR!
YOU - AND YOUR ELK! 🦌 - ARE NOT WANTED HERE. SO KINDLY TROT OFF BEFORE I GET BUCKING MAD.
@MLClark
More dollars than sense ;)
It's TRUE, though! 😂
@MLClark
I use that one often :)
Shakespeare:
In Much Ado About Nothing, Constable Dogberry uses multiple malapropisms—At one point, he says, “Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons.” There are two malapropism examples in this line: He should have said “apprehended,” not “comprehended,” and “suspicious” rather than “auspicious.”
I do so love the Shakespearean malapropisms!
He was working on so many layers: clever, vulgar insinuations for the rabble in the pit, but also wordplay like this, that only those in the more educated classes would have grasped.
What fun with the language had he. :)
Autocorrect is the greatest improv poet of our times.
And... also probably responsible for its fair share of awkward texts to family, friends, and partners! 🙃 You win some, you lose some.
Indian Hills CO?
@MLClark At first, the only one I could think of was "taken for granite" and that only because of a Rick & Morty episode I watched. But I started Googling, and was reminded of the recurring Weekend Update character Emily Litella. The malapropism I most remember there was ""I Will Swallow Him" ("I love him, I love him, I love him, and where he goes I'll swallow, I'll swallow, I'll swallow . . . .".😄
HOMGOSH I spit coffee while reading that. 😂
I don't think I'm ever going to hear that song the same way again. THANK YOU... I think?!
@MLClark When Gilda was performing the character with Chevy Chase, I gather her malapropisms were more sympathetically received. With Jane Curtin, though, the reception was decidedly more frosty - and Litella would usually reply "Bitch!"😏
Classic,
“I suffer from short-term remembery loss.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3kIpCzLzEo&t=54s&pp=2AE2kAIB
@MLClark "Tenterhook" was the word of the day. At first I thought, "Isn't it tenderhook?" but then I realized who wrote it so it must be right.
Baseball is filled with malaprops, courtesy of Yogi Berra. A common malaprop by inexperienced broadcasters is to say that a pitcher is "throwing up" instead of "warming up" in the bullpen.
RBI stands for Runs Batted In. A lot of people say, RBIs, which is already plural. I always said RBI.
@MLClark In common English, "coming down the pike" versus "coming down the pipe."
Merriam-Webster says it's "down the pike."
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/down-the-pike-vs-down-the-pipe-idiom-usage
🤔 If it's this Pike, I don't think I have any objections...
(I mean, he's no Ortegas, but if she's busy flying the ship... 😅)
@MLClark Pike's Peak!
Yogi Berra's contributions are always a delight, but OH, the adorably awkward nature of acronyms in common use. :)
It's always fun to remember your PIN number when you go to the ATM machine. The name for that problem is SO perfect, too. Did you know it's called RAS Syndrome - literally, redundant acronym syndrome syndrome?
*chef's kiss*
@MLClark Automobiles have a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). When i was in law enforcement, officers always referred to the "VIN Number" when it's just VIN.
@MLClark If you want to talk acronyms in common use ...
#NASA has mastered acronyms.
Some are spelled out, others are pronounced like a word.
We do we say "NAH-suh" (NASA) but "V-A-B" (VAB)?
NASA's predecessor was "the N-A-C-A," with "the" in front. Early recordings after NASA began in 1958 have people saying "the N-A-S-A."
Somehow it evolved into "NAH-suh."
Oooh! I love that detail for authenticity in period pieces. I've read through NASA's publication style guide in the past, but some of those technical quirks - especially for audio - just slip through the cracks.
@MLClark I have a 1962 recording of KSC Director Kurt Debus, von Braun's man from Peenemunde days, saying "NASA" every which way. A couple times he says "the NAY-suh." Sometimes he says "N-A-S-A." Just kinda all over. But I use those recordings to show people how it's evolved over the years.
I love this one because it leans on the idea that anything polysyllabic ending in "-ate" must be menacing.
Eviscerate
Decimate
Obliterate
Subjugate
Confiscate
Indoctrinate
...Illiterate? Eh, close enough.
saw a performance of The Liar, translated by David Ivers this year. Probably a lot in there but i have a hard time remembering lines
Hilarious, a must see if you can catch a performance
@MLClark There are some nice ones in Alice in Wonderland. I am fond of the of the Mock Turtle's description of his underwater school agenda: "Reeling and Writhing of course, to begin with . . . and the different branches of arithmetic--ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision.”
I once wrote a poem where I typed "a dark adopted eye" instead of "a dark adapted eye." I kept the original instead of correcting it.
Oh, you've reminded me of a favourite malapropism.
I once got a secondhand copy of Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (poems), and the last owner - a Korean student reading this book for class - had jotted in the margins of the death poem, after Billy's been shot and is contemplating the whole scene, "These are his thoughts in the last minuets of his life."
One typo.
So much added poetry. :)
My favorite is direct from the word's eponymous character, Mrs Malaprop: She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.
@MLClark That's a great word AND question. I'm not sure what mine is...