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From Denny: The following is a fun excerpt from Cheeky Quote Day over at The Social Poets. For the full post, go here.
*** Those funny slips of the tongue that come out weird and ridiculous!
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What’s a malapropism? It’s one of those Freudian nuisances that have long plagued humanity – and politicians. We will get to that in a moment. A malapropism is really the unintentional use of a wrong word or strings of words into a phrase (compounding the problem) that causes confusion with the listeners as to what you truly meant to utter.
OK, so it’s unintentional and a humorous misuse or distortion of the word or phrase. A malapropism is especially effective because though it sounds a lot like the intended word so that it ends up ludicrously wrong in the context! What’s worse is if you make a habit of talking like this.
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Some typographer having fun: I Shot the Serif ---- sheriff
A quick bit of history trivia for you on the origin of the word malapropism… OK, all you show-offs quit waving your hands because you already know the answer. Malapropism came into our language a few centuries ago from the pen of writer Richard Sheridan. His character, Mrs. Malaprop, was known for these speech antics in his 1775 play named The Rivals.
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"...promise to forget this fellow - to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory." -------------- obliterate
"O, he will dissolve my mystery!" ------- resolve
"He is the very pine-apple of politeness!" ------- pinnacle
"I have since laid Sir Anthony's preposition before her;" ------- proposition
"Oh! it gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree." -------- hysterics
"I hope you will represent her to the captain as an object not altogether illegible." ------- eligible
"...she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying." ------- comprehend
"...she's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile." ------- alligator
"I am sorry to say, Sir Anthony, that my affluence over my niece is very small." ------- influence
"Why, murder's the matter! slaughter's the matter! killing's the matter! - but he can tell you the perpendiculars." ------- particulars
"Nay, no delusions to the past - Lydia is convinced;" ------- allusions
"...behold, this very day, I have interceded another letter from the fellow;" ------- intercepted
"I thought she had persisted from corresponding with him;" ------- desisted
"His physiognomy so grammatical!" ------- phraseology
"I am sure I have done everything in my power since I exploded the affair;" ------- exposed
"I am sorry to say, she seems resolved to decline every particle that I enjoin her." ------- article
"...if ever you betray what you are entrusted with... you forfeit my malevolence for ever..." ------- benevolence
"Your being Sir Anthony's son, captain, would itself be a sufficient accommodation;" ------- recommendation
"Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!" -------- reprehend/apprehend, oracular/vernacular, derangement/arrangement, epitaphs/epithets
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*** For the full post of funny malapropisms - that my British friends call Colemanballs after a sports announcer prone to slips of the tongue - and the examples of former President Bush in all his Miss Speak glory, video of short clips included, visit Cheeky Quote Day at The Social Poets, go here.
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