Thursday, April 8, 2010

SOME MALAPROPISMS ARE REALLY CLOSE AND FUNNY

Urban dictionary often uses what appear to be malapropisms, though deliberate at times, are funny and right on.  One recently was 'self-defacating' , a play on self-depracating.  While not spontaneous as true malapropisms, I look for laughs wherever I can find them.

A friend told me of an uncle-in-law who said he was going to paint.  He said I am going to 'polyurinate' the table, though I strongly suspect he might have meant polyurethane. He also asked his renter upstairs if she bought a 'condom' yet, meaning condo.  Another woman on the Phil Donahue show clearly meant prophylactics and said 'propolappies'..

My mother for whom English was not her first language had some interesting concepts but translated them in interesting ways One I always enjoyed was, meaning inspector, the 'expector' is coming to see if we are doing something wrong. My mother for whom English was not her first language had some interesting concepts but translated them in interesting ways.  She knew that products not made in the US were more costly, frequently.  She asked me to buy some feta cheese for her and said, "I don't want that stuff they make here, I want that 'important' cheese", obviously meaning imported.

Sometimes I enjoy them so much I use them deliberately since I have great difficulty reading technical manuals and understanding them.  Consequently I have adopted, 'When all else fails, read the destructions'.  If you enjoy words as much as I do, perhaps you will enjoy this site.

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