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Malaproprisms


ibclare

ibclare

Queen Bee
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I am going to apologize before I even begin this thread. I love grammar - having grown up in a very politically and grammatically correct home. So sue me!


Malaproprism is a word which combines the prefix "mal-," suffix "-ism," and the operative word, "appropriate."


There are several categories, but by far the funniest, most popular, are those which interchange one word for another of similar spelling and sound, but of different meaning. These can be funny, even hilarious.


Our dearly departed United States President George W. Bush, was actually the foremost quoted in a scholarly paper on malaproprisms. In fact, his quotes fit every one of the author's categories!


Here is one of his:
"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile."


Here is an example that demonstrates another category of his many maloproprisms - in this case, word formation or grammatical agreement:
"The congressman stayed after the town meeting and discussed the high cost of living with
several women."


How could I forget that one?


Others that were given in a forum I attend were:
"My grand daughter went to the doctor and came back with an upper repository infection, just glad it wasn't a suppository infection?"
"I am not illegitimate..... I can read and write."
He bought a tantrum bike for his wife and himself."


I came up with one:
The billionaire said, "Soon I am living on a jet airplane."
The hobo said, "Soon I am leaving the good life."


OTOH, maybe both of those are actually well put. In the event of a holocaust, the billionairre might be prepared to spend a long time on a jetplane or a spaceship. The hobo may have won the lottery and is not happy about living life without freedom from financial woes.


Let's see if you can come up with some of your own! :cool2:

PS: here is the article: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2125079
 
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Unbeknown to most the UK has the highest amount of Tornadoes per area than anywhere else.

Whilst not exactly huge 'twisters' they all still count and recently there have been one or two 'larger' ones that have actually caused considerable damage.

On a news item one lady was interviewed and asked about the spate of unusual weather...

"I've never seen so many torpedoes before" she said...totally oblivious to what she just said.

The interview ended right there.

Regards.
Mysteron.
 
Seriously? Before I precede, I was under the impression that the state of Texas had more Tornado's per geographical capitol than the UK. Don't no if that's true or not.
 
It may come down to the definition of 'tornado' but that's what I was lead to believe.

I know Wikipedia isn't the most reliable source so you may be right but this is what it says...

"The United States averaged 1,274 tornadoes per year in the last decade. Canada reports nearly 100 annually in the southern regions. However, the UK probably has most tornadoes per area per year, 0.14 per 1000 km². The Netherlands have a similar number of tornadoes per area. In absolute number of events, ignoring area, the UK experiences more tornadoes (excluding waterspouts) than any other European country."

Taken from THIS page.

Whatever...they certainly weren't torpedoes! LOL.

Regards.
MrHidingUnderTheStairs.
 
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Yes, but not as part of the News.
It was shown in a 'blooper' show with, I assume, the persons consent.

Regards.
MrTom.
 
IamSam said:
Snicker...........snicker.....:bustagut:
Click to expand...

I assume you mean this example. I'm not sure since snicker doesn't mean ahything differently even if spelled the same like "wind" and "wind." These are called homonyms.

Maloproprisms do have diferent categories however.

I learned these from a paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2125079
I knew they were syntactic errors and such, but I didn't know they were malopropisms. They can be just as funny though, at least to my warped mind.

Syntax errors/ syntactic ambiguity:
‘The bride was wearing an old lace gown that fell to the floor as she walked down the isle.’

Metaphors, idioms and proverbs
‘Every silver lining has a cloud around it.’

A cognitive alternative
For example, a DOG cognitive construct is not the prototypical filler for the
guest slot in a HOTEL cognitive construct. However, hotels for dogs with journeying
owners do exist;


Here is another one of the kind we were doing above:
‘In the middle of the 18th century, all the morons moved to Utah.’

I don't think this is a Bushism, the paper didn't indicate that, and I mean no disrespect to Mormons.
 
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My sister-in-law once described some clothing that had come out of her washer a dingy gray as "tattleship" gray, muddling the words used on an old TV advertisement for laundry soap ("tattle tale gray") with the color many WW2 warships were painted (battleship gray).

T
 
No Clare, I was referring to this sentence.....

Seriously? Before I precede, I was under the impression that the state of Texas had more Tornado's per geographical capitol than the UK. Don't no if that's true or not.
 
Tom Mann said:
My sister-in-law once described some clothing that had come out of her washer a dingy gray as "tattleship" gray, muddling the words used on an old TV advertisement for laundry soap ("tattle tale gray") with the color many WW2 warships were painted (battleship gray).

T
Click to expand...

Well now, you have just tattled on her!I hope she doesn't get up her battle ship personality, turn gray in the face and shoot her tornados at you. :rolleyes: <<<---Should I have used this skyroller?

I used to have a friend (haven't talked to him in years) who had a store called Skyscraper Heels. You can imagine how high those heels were! I always wondered if maybe he was transvestite, if not having a girle finger. Ehr, I mean figure . . .
 
IamSam said:
Seriously? Before I precede, I was under the impression that the state of Texas had more Tornado's per geographical capitol than the UK. Don't no if that's true or not.
Click to expand...
Sam, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but Texas may have a few, over here for training and other purposes, but GB clearly is the hands-down winner in this department:
http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/tornado.cfm

:bustagut:

T

PS - In fact, now that I think of it, perhaps some Tornadoes are equipped with torpedoes. :-)
 
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Tom.......a swing and a miss. :bustagut:

This has nothing to do with my statement being factual.
 
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I woulda never guessed, Sam. ;-)

I guess my suppressed smile didn't come across in plaintext. :-)

Cheers,

Tom
 
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