malapropism - Wordsmith.org

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#209642 - 02/19/13 01:57 PM malapropism
cynical0ne stranger Registered: 02/19/13 Posts: 1	Many years ago my first wife and I received a videotape of her family's old home movies with a voice over of remembrances done by Dot, her famously naive mom, in her usual hilarious, stream-of-thought style. Much of her narration had little to do with what was actually happening in the movie and at one point she was talking about a family friend and said that someone had told her that he was an hermaphrodite. However, she was absolutely sure he was an episcopalian. We had to stop the tape until we finished rolling on the floor and still talk about it when we see each other.
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#209651 - 02/19/13 08:31 PM Re: malapropism [Re: cynical0ne]
Betti F. stranger Registered: 02/19/13 Posts: 1	I'm amazed to see that you misuse the word humorous. Humorous is exactly what a malapropism is not. Humor is intentional. You may mean hilarious, which is a reaction from the hearer not the speaker. I've seen the word humorous misused in this way often.. a sign that the user doesn't understand the meaning of the word.. or for that matter, what humor itself is. A big subject.
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#209652 - 02/19/13 08:39 PM Re: malapropism [Re: Betti F.]
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 10472 Loc: this too shall pass	if this is a comment on Anu's definition of malapropism, you should send it to him direct, via the Contact Us link up above - he is unlikely to see it here, as he only occasionally visits the 'Information' Forum.
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#209653 - 02/19/13 09:14 PM Re: malapropism [Re: Betti F.]
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13667	Originally Posted By: Betti F. I'm amazed to see that you misuse the word humorous. Humorous is exactly what a malapropism is not. Humor is intentional. You may mean hilarious, which is a reaction from the hearer not the speaker. I've seen the word humorous misused in this way often.. a sign that the user doesn't understand the meaning of the word.. or for that matter, what humor itself is. A big subject. Or that you are behind the times on the linguistic shift in the meaning of humorous. Remember the wise words of the Red Queen: "You have to run as fast as you can to stay in one place." At least you don't go back to the original meaning, "relating to the body humors."
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