#94155
02/01/2003 3:24 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
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Posts: 833 |
Anyone else notice how rampant malapropisms are becoming? At the moment I can only think of one very obvious one I've heard quite a few times recently....I've been doing lots of brief interviews with business owners, for articles for the upcoming Brides section for the local paper. People seem to like personal stories, even short ones, to show they understand what it's like to be planning a wedding - not all people, but enough that I heard, a few times, the immortal words, "This would be a good antidote to tell..." (why, Lord, why?!) Then, too, I was at a friend's for an opera night a couple of weeks ago. Most of the other guests were women she works with, and one of them was Mrs Malaprop reincarnate, I swear. I wish I could remember some of the things she said....I would've written them down but I thought that might seem rude.  Has anyone else noticed this phenom? Is it partly Bush's far-reaching linguistic influence  , d'you think?
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#94156
02/01/2003 6:41 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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If, mg, you're implying that you think many of us here are prone to using the malaprop, I think I take reception to that remark! Sometimes folks just launch into ambidextrous language as a way of perking things up. But I regress. What I meant to say in the worst place was there's a guy who's something of an authority on this. Although I do surrealize, mg, that you're referring to folks who seem to be making deliberate mistakes in the fusage of these words. Mr. Malaprop, himself (or, as we used to call him, the Musickmeister!  ...losely speaking, of course!): http://shtick.org/NormCrosby/norm73.htm
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#94157
02/01/2003 11:27 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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a good antidote to tell
I'd listen carefully on this one. Next time you hear it (or the time after that {or the time after that}) see if you can attualy hear the t or whether what you're hearing is anedote with the c assimilated into the d (a pefectly normal linguistic process that gave use such solecisms as illegal, immoral and irrespective).
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#94158
02/01/2003 2:08 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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" But I regress. " Dear WO'N: What do you become when you regress?
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#94159
02/01/2003 4:14 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear WO'N: What do you become when you regress?
Second place?
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#94160
02/01/2003 6:24 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Backward. But we knew that, of course, didn't we, Juan?
- Pfranz
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#94161
02/01/2003 8:07 PM
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Posts: 4,189
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But I regress.
Akshually®, I stole it from Norm Crosby (but that's a norm in this business). if you read the link
Honest thievery will get you nowhere.
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#94162
02/01/2003 9:49 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
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#94163
02/05/2003 3:22 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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I'd listen carefully on this one.Akshually® (ooh, I'm getting the hang of ®! great excitement! still don't know why I'm putting one on this word but I accept that somebody must've coined it...!), I DO listen, VERY carefully - 'tis me job, ye know. Cannae be misquoting people. Well, akshually® (now I can't stop myself! ®), I can and do misquote people - but only on porpoise. Hafta stop them sounding like fuddling eejits in their business profiles, doesn't I? I am invited to another opera soiree with the same people this coming Friday. Will see if I can discreetly jot down a few examples and report back to y'all. Mebbe I can wear a shirt with long cuffs and scribble notes on them (the cuffs!) in delible ink.
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#94164
02/05/2003 2:28 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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jot down a few examples
Is your local dialect one that swallows ts in those circumstances? I.e., is antidote normally pronounced anidote?
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#94165
02/05/2003 7:37 PM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
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local dialect one that swallows ts
Um, not really....Not that I've noticed, anyway. It was pretty plain to me the people I was interviewing (at least two of them said this) were using the word "antidote" rather than "anecdote."
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#94166
02/06/2003 2:22 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320 |
Reminds me of a psychologist I used to know who always kept very careful "anna-dotal" records. Trust me, this wasn't assimilation. I sat at meetings with the guy off and on for three years, and it was clearly "anna-dotal." hyphen and all Way back during my Summer of the Soda Jerk, there was a fellow Jerk who always spoke of the chronical scoop (the thing was cone-shaped). Also the neighbor lady who was being treated for very close veins. True, every one--so help me, Norm Crosby.
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#94167
02/06/2003 2:37 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Reminds me of one from my first yesr in college. My God! That's going on 40 years ago!
Anyway, Hubert M. Cole was a graduate of one of the service academies back in the 20s, and taught calculus. He had several malapropisms, but the one I remember best is car diode instead of cardioid, the latter referring to a function which, when graphed, drew a heart shape.
TEd
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#94168
02/12/2003 4:47 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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Okay, I didn't make it to the opera night on Friday so am unable to report on the classic malapropisms bandied about there by one woman in particular.... But this evening (well, yesterday, now!) I was at a Committee of the Whole mtg (read: City Council - essentially, anyway - I'm still not sure of the distinction between a C of the W mtg and a Council mtg). Our beloved mayor came up with a couple of doozies. I only remember one of 'em, alas. Councillors were discussing semantics - trying to decide if they wanted to use the word "endorse" or the word "support" - one of them had suggested replacing the former with the latter. The mayor said, "So are we going to supplement support for endorse?" No, honey. You're contemplating SUBSTITUTING one for the other. Sighhhh.... (But when I bitched about this to my mother later on, she said, "Poor Isabel - she's a busy woman and she works hard. I can forgive her for that.") 
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#94169
02/12/2003 11:58 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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"Poor Isabel - she's a busy woman and she works hard. I can forgive her for that."I think I'm on your mother's side. There's no need to be mean about it. Besides, everyone's done a Mrs. Malaprop at one time or another. They've just not all been on camera, on the radio, on council minutes, doing it!
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#94170
02/12/2003 2:28 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Eight or ten years ago my office had dot matrix printers, one for each desktop computer. The paper was pin-feed type, with tear off strips on each side that had holes for the pin-feed mechanism. We had to shlep our own boxes of paper from the loading dock, ands one morning Gene came huffing and puffing up the two long flights of stairs with a 30 pound box of paper for his computer.
A couple of minutes later I heard him cursing under his breath and looked over. The paper he'd brought up had the holes for the pinfeed, but the strips on the side did not tear off. He cursed again and said, "This damned paper ain't prophylacted right."
I ended up with a screenful of coffee.
TEd
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