A.Word.A.Day--malapropism
malapropism (MAL-uh-prop-iz-ehm) noun
1. The humorous misuse of a word by confusing it with a similar-sounding
word.
2. An instance of such misuse.
[After Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan's play, The Rivals,
who confused words this way.]
"For younger readers: Norm Crosby was a semi-celebrated stand-up comic
in the '60s whose gimmick was the malapropism, or the confusing of
similar-sounding words and phrases, often with amusing effect. Examples
include saying held hostile instead of held hostage, complaining about
being pillared in the press when you mean pilloried, and telling
school kids that to succeed, 'You've got to preserve', when the word you
had in mind was persevere.
"These particular examples are, as it happens, all actual malapropisms
enunciated by candidate Bush, who has also confused subscribe with
ascribe, gist with grist, and vile with either vital or
viable, depending on how you read a call for 'an economically vile
hemisphere.'"
Bob Wieder; A Guide to Bushspeak; The San Francisco Chronicle; Sep 10, 2000.
This week's theme: words from AWAD archives.
X-Bonus
Walking is also an ambulation of mind. -Gretel Ehrlich, novelist, poet, and
essayist (1946- )