Courtesy of a link at Instapundit, we find Teresa Neilsen Hayden's collection of mangled, misspoken and mutilated phrases and expressions. They're priceless - albeit unbelievably wince-inducing to those of us who love the language! Here are a few examples.
malice of forethought
he was the hunter, and she his query
And, from the comment thread:
their cloaks bellowed behind them (Renee)
Viola! (TexAnne)
Earth fell under the alien yolk (Lisa Goldstein)
yay, verily (Owlmirror)
he put his hands around her waste (Mrs. TD)
Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder (Ariella)
that medieval system of government … called Futilism (Ariella)
“Bare with me,” said the stripper. (Writerious)
There are many more at the link. Go read, and giggle with me!
Peter
3 comments:
Now I've got Ricky from Trailer Park Boys stuck in my head (NSFW: naughty words);
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfq3c4Cf1Fs
Okay, the last three could be considered very clever, if deliberate. Unfortunately, I really don't have much faith that they are.
Followed the link on Insty's site the other day and perused the list until I couldn't take it anymore. I'd be curious to discover how many of these malapropisms are the result of simple, and substantial, ignorance of English and how many are caused by software (Dragon, et al) selecting a homonym and omission of the proofreading step. I suspect the former; I suspect the former, as I have trouble believing speech-to-text software has become that ubiquitous.
I'm quite aware of the decline in written communication ability and see a number of similar occurrences in blog comments daily. When the best people can do is write just as they talk and listen, and read little or not at all, it does not bode well for our civilization.
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