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Pedants' corner

New Malapropism

33 replies

RoxyNotFoxy · 19/04/2008 10:44

On Radio 4's Front Row last week I heard a modest character referred to as "self-defecating".

Now I'm wondering why this bit of linguistic confusion isn't one I've heard before. Because it's kind of obvious isn't it? It's been waiting to happen.

All we need now is the converse one: "People were deprecating on the floor".

OP posts:
TrinityTheProgressingRhino · 19/04/2008 10:47

lol

WanderingTrolley · 19/04/2008 10:50

tee hee

I remember finding myself watching the 'the Lundy Munchtime' news, as announced by the newsreader.

I do like when it's munchtime

RoxyNotFoxy · 19/04/2008 14:11

Another one I heard not so long ago: "It's her magnus opum".

OP posts:
Blandmum · 19/04/2008 14:15

My mother would insist that my father had problems with his 'Prostrate' gland.

Nagapie · 19/04/2008 14:20

My BIL went to a dinner party where a real Hyacinth Bucket wife told him that she wanted to move her family to a more effluent area ...

LaComtesse · 19/04/2008 14:32

I remember once confidently declaring that capital (corporal) punishment was no longer permitted in schools(I was about 13) and wondered why this pronouncement was greeted with gales of mirth from my family .

pania · 19/04/2008 14:53

My grandmother once indulgently said of some young man "Well, he's just sowing his rolled oats".

Blandmum · 19/04/2008 14:57

My mother often used to talk about Lawrence of Olivier

Heated · 19/04/2008 15:06

My grandmother told a friend that career-wise I was thinking about soliciting!

Blandmum · 19/04/2008 15:07

PMSL....and did you????

Heated · 19/04/2008 16:12

No, I went into a less well paid & less respected profession

talkingmongoose · 19/04/2008 16:30

My sister told me a couple of weeks ago that global warming waa causing great white sharks to come inland.

I do hope she meant inshore.

expatkat · 19/04/2008 16:42

Martianbishop

I attended an event where a man read from his self-published collection of poems which he said was inspired by his experiences with "prostrate" cancer. The word "prostrate" was used throughout the whole book. It'd have been heatrbreaking, except the guy was annoying and deluded.

expatkat · 19/04/2008 16:43

I have this mental glitch with carnation and incarnation.

I sometimes say, "it's had lots of carnations" and my mother rofl at me.

LaComtesse · 19/04/2008 19:39

My boss was explaining to someone (not me) the difference between emaciation and emancipation the other day. Vital knowledge if you want to be free rather than starved . I forget the context it came up in now - he's the sort of boss who is a Know It All.

branflake81 · 20/04/2008 08:21

When I was a nipper doing my A Levels, I thought that "incarcerate" meant to "embody" so would pepper my essays with phrases such as "this character incarcerates / is an incarceration of ....."

RoxyNotFoxy · 20/04/2008 11:45

I once knew a woman (who actually worked for the Civil Service) who thought there was a government department called Customs & Exercise.

OP posts:
SheikYerbouti · 20/04/2008 11:55

rofl at "self-defecating"

My aunt loves listening to Urethra Franklin.

LaComtesse · 20/04/2008 13:35

When I worked in accounts many years ago, I had to open post addressed to the brought ledger dept .

Madlentileater · 20/04/2008 13:39

DS1 tells me there is a grind core band called Urethra Franklin. God knows what grind core is, but at least it seems they have wit.

UnquietDad · 20/04/2008 15:02

The boy newsreader on BBC-3 - the one who looks about 12 years old - said the other day, after the 8pm news:

"More from me on 9, at 3"

And, just before the sound faded, we heard "Oh, what?" (presumably as the director/ floor assistant in his earpiece told him what he had done!)

schneebly · 20/04/2008 15:08

lol - love these!

My Aunt who is not very bright (and also not very nice so it is okay to say this) was once so incensed by her daughter's treatment at school that she wrote to the Educational Omnibusman I didn't bother to correct her!

SheikYerbouti · 20/04/2008 15:31

My Aunt would not know grind core if it sat on her face and bit her on the arse.

Neither would I, for that matter

gigglewitch · 20/04/2008 15:42

RNF. at op and 'customs and exercise'...

gigglewitch · 20/04/2008 15:45

BTW, a colleague of mine is on a "low carbon diet"

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