Malapropisms

Those are not malapropisms. Try again.

I don't correct people. That is such a prissy, arrogant thing to do. It only breeds contempt.

You sound like a bitch, not a friend.

My father called Saturday Night LIve- Saturday Night ALIVE

R1 lol!

Pedantic, op. Truly.

"I could care less" drives me mad.

Anyone who doesn't even know what "malapropism" means is hardly in a position to be policing other people's English.

The early bird catches a fish in a barrel.

[quote] Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.

Said by Dan Quayle.

[quote] We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.

Said by George W. Bush.

R9, sorry, but that's a mixed metaphor.

[quote] The mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect, as in, for example, “dance a flamingo” (instead of flamenco).

Definition of malapropism.

My ex used to say "green behind the ears." I thought it was intentional. Eleven years later I realized it wasn't.

One of the Miami Real Housewives said “cool as a whistle.”

R13 😂

I listened to the Gosford Park commentary track (again) and Robert Altman said “obliglatory” twice. I explained that the word has only one el but he didn’t seem to care so I’m letting it go.

My father would call John Lennon

JACK LEMON

Two famous ones from Ringo Starr: “a hard day’s night” and “tomorrow never knows.”

years ago my "Oriental" flight crew on Northwest Airlines to Bangkok announced the movie being shown as "A Woman Called Fish"

My father would call National Westminster Bank

National Westminister Bank

R13 i once said "calm as a cucumber"

"yeah, they tend to not kick up a fuss"

OP, are you by any chance a member of the Mortimer Club?

My sister repeatedly writes “brung” in her texts for present and past tenses of “bring.”

I might just fade into Bolivian

well this thread has turned into one big priapism!

"amendable" instead of "amenable"

[quote]The early bird catches a fish in a barrel. (That is a malapropism.)

No, it is not. But thanks for playing.

Despite having been told what a malapropism is and is not, some of you continue to be as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.

^^ For those who may not recognize it, that is a malapropism. ^^

Justin Bieber talking about the "Sixteen Chapel?"

I see these two a lot:

“I had to reign him in.”

“He held a deep-seeded belief...”

“Deep-seeded” actually makes more sense than the correct term, “deep-seated.” It brings to mind ideas as seeds buried deep under a cover of soil/prejudice.

R30 those are more of homonymnal mix-ups, than malapropisms

Well, smell you, R31!

Why, thank you, r28. You are the very pineapple of politeness.

I'm chomping at the bit to see how this thread unfolds.

[quote] I don't correct people. That is such a prissy, arrogant thing to do.

You really could’ve just put a comma after...ya know what, never mind. Forget I said anything.

[quote] The early bird catches a fish in a barrel.

No, my dear, that is a mixed metaphor.

Don’t you dare incinerate we don’t know what we’re talking about!

I have been thoroughly repriminded for the error.

[quote]Forget I said anything.

Everybody always does, dear.

so no more appropriatisms?

[quote] —Miss Malaprop

Was that irony R1?

Hold my cigar.

During a conference on The Goldwyn Follies, we were discussing possible choreographers. Martha Graham is suggested.

"I think I've heard of her," he says, "but just what kind of dancing does she do?"

"Well, you know. Modern dancing."

"No, no," said Goldwyn. "I don't want it."

"Why not?"

Goldwyn: "Because. Modern dancing is so old-fashioned!" At the time, he was dead right.

I cringe when people talk about “card sharks,” when the actual phrase is “card sharps.”

A doctor a day takes apple and other thing out of poosey.

R41, did you think that was a malapropism?

Thank you, R40.

Certainly the OP is not as ignorant as she seems.

But poor R1 appears to be troubled in that area.

My boss says "alls" as in "Alls I know is blah blah blah." I can't correct her but it's weird.

My mom says heart attacked

My mother, who is pretty near perfect when it comes to English (she learned it as a second language, & is very precise), always says "window seal" for "sill." And "Cru-sants" for croissants, & cabernet sue-vignon.

I've had a long and extinguished career.

I once heard a woman yelling at her kids for letting the screen door slam, “Hey! That’s a door, not a jar!”

R46, R48, those aren't malapropisms, just white-trashisms.

Archie Bunker was the king of malapropisms.

A coworker once said that something was considered a “delicatessen” instead of delicacy. Is that a malapropism? I always thought the misused word had to have an attempt at using elevated language that flopped.

Anyway, it’s my favorite.

One of my work friends had to drop out of our “exuberant” (I.e. exorbitant) lunches.

"Wow, look at the steel girdles on that bridge!"

"My brother bought a vintage COMIC!" (The actual car brand was called Comet.

"I'm so sick of hearing about The Electrical College."

"A rolling stone gathers no moths."

"My man has such carnival knowledge, he's so sexually adventurous!"

"This car cost me an arm in the lake!"

"While in the hospital my cousin needed several blood transmissions."

"They're wasting so much water, the need to shut the fire hyphen"

"She has an amazing photogenic memory."

"Weapons of Mass Production."

"Please, just nip it in the butt!"

"He's so stupid, he's always such an escape goat."

On DL they deliberately use nota republic for notary public. Is that a malaproprism?

A college friend used to say “flustrated” but I think that one actually works!

^^ That's more akin to a portmanteau.

My mom would say: “You took it amongst yourselves to do this.”

“Amongst” should be “upon”.

My family members that should know better still say this. They fight me when I point it out and insist it’s grammatically correct. What say you DL?

I say most people here don’t know what a malapropism is, in spite of someone posting the actual fucking definition.

What's with this MARY! prop ism here on DL?

[quote]R63: What's with this MARY! prop ism here on DL?

It would be like responding to a thread titled “What’s your favorite salad?” by posting “I like pork chops.” Then, when told that pork chops are not a salad, people like you would say “What’s the big deal? It’s still food, isn’t it?”

This thread is a real duster fire.

For all intensive purposes, some of you are really tiresome.

(Did I get it right, all you pompous pedants?)

It's like walking on seashells in this thread.

My partner once referred to barbarians as "ball-bearing-ans."

He does that a lot. It used to be cute.

You’re a horse, darlin!

[quote] (Did I get it right, all you pompous pedants?)

How very dare you!

What difference does our religion make?

I’m glad I know what a malapropism is.

But then, I have an imminent knowledge of the English language.

Comic Norm Crosby built an entire career on malapropisms. He came by it honestly though, he had a hearing problem.

Yes, I'm old.

As a teen, I had a friend over to my parents’ house for dinner. She came in, smelled the dinner cooking, and said “Mmm, I haven’t eaten all day and I’m ravaged.”

Only a few years ago, this song taught me what a malaprop is. Killer tune, by the way.

Archie Bunker once told the Meathead to take a Short Walk Off A Long Pier.

You can’t even get that right!

It’s take a long walk off a short pier.

But wasn't Mrs. Malaprop a character out of Dickens?

Mike aka Clueless

No, Mrs. Malaprop is a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic 18th century comedy of manners, The Rivals.

I used to call Library- LIBERRY.

Yogi Berra used to say- When you see a fork in the road , take it.

A. Bunker called a gynecologist a GROINecologist.

[quote]For all intensive purposes, some of you are really tiresome.

Tiresome posters can usually be taken for granite on DL.

He's very sick right now he's got Ammonia.

Yogi Berra also once said "It's like deja vu all over again." He was famous for his manacled aphorisms.

It kind of lost its magic from when she was first debuted, but the Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With character on SNL gives good examples of malapropisms.

My father called Russell Crowe- Russell KRAUSE

My aunt always talked like this, my mom would tell me about a lot of her malapropisms. She would say things like, "I've been climbing the stairs all day, I'm going to have a figure like Vaughn Monroe." You have to be pretty old to get that one, she meant Marilyn Monroe, Vaughn Monroe was a singer/bandleader. Or she'd go to the doctor for her annual monogram.

[quote] Mike aka Clueless

Aw, bless your lil heart.

I have a friend who refers to Jason Robards as Jason Robarbs and it makes me crazy for no reason.

My mother calls Cedrick the Entertainer Sedgwick the Entertainment.

Someone I know calls fall foliage "foilage" but she's not from this country.

A. Bunker once called Julius Caesar- SID Caesar.

I was almost 50 by the time I learned it wasn't "for all intensive purposes".

But by that time you were an Eldergay and no one heard you make the correction.

R94 didn’t anyone make fun of you? It’s a doggie dog world out there, I’m surprised you got that far without anyone correcting you.

I hate when people use dangling propositions in sentences.

Archie Bunker made out his last will and testicle

From A to Z, he ran the full gambit.

A miss is good for a smile 😊

[quote] I have a friend who refers to Jason Robards as Jason Robarbs and it makes me crazy for no reason.

What makes me crazy is contemplating why two people speak frequently about Jason Robards.

Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant star in An American in Convent Garden.

Not a malapropism, but I hate "on accident." "I dropped the glass on accident." I learned it is "by accident," but now everyone says "on." Sounds bad to my sensitive ears.

Another one I don’t get is a near miss. If it’s a near miss, that makes it an actual hit!

Not a malapropism but one that I want to correct is people who say "they've done a 360" when they mean 180 degrees, in metaphors for someone who completely changed their behavior of some sort.

Just to today I said as I was attempting to relax, "I'm decomposing." I meant to say I'm decompressing. I made me laugh.

r104 agreed, this bothers me to no end.

My best friend has always said "supposably" instead of "supposedly." My Mom called "faux wood" mini-blinds "fox wood mini-blinds."

As a kid growing up, i thought it was "for all intensive purposes" and later found out it's "for all intents and purposes." Still pretty much seems the same.

Also, i hate everyone who doesn't understand that it's "would've" NOT "would of" and all iterations of that. Didn't pass 6th grade English, did you?

Back when we were teenagers, one of my friends was shocked to learn that it’s a Xmas wreath & not a “reef.” This same friend crashed another one of our friend’s cars, & his dad came & yelled at him in front of us & told him, “it’s time to face the music. And DANCE!”

Pre-Madonna.

R98 , Archie also said Edith was going through "mendpause."

"Let's Face the Music and Dance" was a popular song by Irving Berlin in the 1930s, written for one of the Astaire/Rogers films.

A woman I worked with took "Tylenoy" and used "Estrey Loudy" cosmetics.

[quote] I'm decomposing

That's the punchline of an old joke. "Q: What would Beethoven be doing if he were still around today?"

"Right off the back, I knew something was wrong."

"He's always bandaging words about."

"Mark has a serious peanut allegory."

"Do you have an anecdote for my terrible cough?"

"In the wreck, they were both injected from the car."

"How much weight did you lose? You look emancipated!"

R101 I didn't say we "frequently" talked about Jason Robards. We're were acting in a play he once had acted in (and the movie) so we talked about him then, and it still comes up sometimes.

R115, was that play A Thousand Clowns?

[quote]Not a malapropism, but I hate "on accident." "I dropped the glass on accident."

I have never once heard anyone say this. Maybe it's regional lingo.

R116 No, it was Long Day's Journey Into Night and we played the brothers.

Is "butt naked" a malapropism for "buck naked"?

Anotgher one I don't get it "I have never stepped foot" -- shouldn't it be "set foot"

[quote] Is "butt naked" a malapropism for "buck naked"?

I would say yes, R119.

[quote] Just to today I said as I was attempting to relax, "I'm decomposing." I meant to say I'm decompressing. I made me laugh.

Don't say "decompensating," either. (Means you're losing your mental stability.)

It was scary, but I jumped in with both feet on.

I don't know whether it is a good thing that so many Dataloungers can't grasp the concept of a malapropism (that means they generally avoid it in everyday use) or whether it is a bad thing (that they cannot find true examples of malapropisms and are intellectually inferior, lol).

[quote]I don't know whether it is a good thing that so many Dataloungers can't grasp the concept of a malapropism (that means they generally avoid it in everyday use) or whether it is a bad thing (that they cannot find true examples of malapropisms and are intellectually inferior, lol).

You are the person who clearly doesn't know WTF a malapropism is! Most of what's been posted have been malapropisms.

Does it make you feel archly superior to call others "intellectually inferior"? Fuck off!

No, I'd say more than half the "malapropisms" posted in this thread are various sorts of grammatical mistakes that aren't true malapropisms. People who can't understand the difference probably make them sometimes without realizing they've done so.

[quote]Not a malapropism, but I hate "on accident." "I dropped the glass on accident."

[quote]I have never once heard anyone say this. Maybe it's regional lingo.

I used to say it when I was a child (in NJ). I thought it was the opposite of "on purpose," so it made sense to me. And even though my mother would correct me when I said it, I refused to believe her and kept on saying "on accident."

oooh r125, looks like I hit a nerve. LOL.

Sopranos malapropisms:

[quote] She’s like an albacore around my neck. [Albatross.]

[quote] Create a little dysentery among the ranks. [Dissension.]

[quote] I was prostate with grief. [Prostrate.]

[quote]Most of what's been posted have been malapropisms.

That is simply not true.

R125, what the hell?! Calm down.

You’re questioning people like you’re re-enacting the Spanish Imposition.

is that a wart on your genitals or is this 1982?

R130 you must adapt to modern society.

Just laugh and greet like they expect you to.

You people need to walk up and smell the coughing.

Clever, R131 (took me minute)!

Anyone who LOLs at their own posts has little room to talk about others being intellectually inferior.

A trick once commented after sex “that was a great organism”

Why, yes, I am a great organism, now that you mention it.

Commuting with nature

People on glass horses shouldn’t throw shoes.

Define of your malapropism are contrived. I think malapropisms occur because persons genuinely mistake a word for another. Some of you are just throwing around homophones and homonyms

I haven't thrown around a homophone since forever

Are you accusing us of being homophonic?

[quote] I haven't thrown around a homophone since forever

Those were good times. These kids these days have no idea.

a recently deceased relative's habit (possibly Freudian) of saying "Silicone Valley" instead of Silicon

This isn't really a Malapropism but it's funny.

My father had seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding many times but he's still mispronounce the name of the movie. He'd call it-

My Big Fat Greek Mama.

Still waiting gor the funny part.

"Gor!" sounds like something Eliza Doolittle would say.

"The pen he saved is the pen he earned." Said to me by my grandfather. It meant he wanted his pen back.

A woman from the South at a Thanksgiving I attended, wanted to compliment the chef. She said "this is like ambergrease." She meant ambrosia.

My aunt once said that something was a "required taste".

Archie Bunker would call a yarmulke a YAMAHA.