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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 725 |
In my “day job” (ha ha) I work in the Safety Office of a plywood manufacturing plant. Recently, when reading the minutes from a Safety Committee meeting, I noticed that one of the topics of concern was a “radio alarm saw.” That puzzled me for a second, then I realized they were referring to a “radial arm saw” and evidently the person taking down the minutes did not know what they were talking about and gave it a good guess. I thought, “Hmmm. Radio alarm saw. That’s about what I need some mornings!”  Know any other good malapropisms?
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Not exactly a malapropism, but had same effect on the lady who committed it. She was
helping her country doctor husband do a home delivery up in the hills. The father of the
was aobviously disappointed when he learned that the newborn was a girl,
understandably having hoped for a boy who would help with heavy farm work.
Quite innocently the doctor's wife inquired: "Couldn't you use a litte hoer?"
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member
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Posts: 171 |
When I was stationed in London, one of the officers put in a leave request for "Whales." I asked him to report back immediately if he saw any.
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This same officer also had a problem with mixed metaphors.
He told me had just counseled his secretary for some error she made.
"How did it go?" I asked.
"She walked out with ruffled feathers between her legs," he said.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Where lies the line of demarcation between malapropisms and mondegreens? Seriously.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
i think mondegreens are lyrics-- fitting words to a tune, sometimes mean a different sylible is accented...
I know there is a song 'secret agent man... (giving you a number and taking away your name..) but it sure sounds like the singer is saying secret asian man...
Mondegreen comes for someone hearing the killed lord (so and so) and the Lady Mondegreen... when in reality the words were they laid him on the green...
YCLIT, since there is information on the Mondegreen page..
malaprops are heard correctly (it is the speaker who has serious messed up) Mondegreens are "mis-hearing" -- when we hear something, and its not quite clear, so we make something up, that sounds almost the same.. it is the listener who is fault.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
The typical malapropism involves only one word. The mondegreens involve mishearing
a phrase - "laid him on the green" becoming "lady mondegreen"
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
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I was dictating a note about a client which came back typed as " she also complains of pain in her empty head." What I had reported was pain in her foot in the metatarsal joint or MT head. (But apparently this is a mondegreen and not a malapropism?)
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
Hey Dubdub -
I would have said that a mondegreen is a misheard word or phrase - and a malapropism is a misused word or phrase.
Didn't I just start a thread about malapropisms not so very long ago?! [grumble-e]
but to add to this one, rather than that one:
One of my housemates during my university years used to say, to indicate that she didn't care about something, "That's no shirt off my back."
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
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Re: she also complains of pain in her empty head." What I had reported was pain in her foot in the metatarsal joint or MT head. (But apparently this is a mondegreen and not a malapropism?)
well, the person transcribing the tape experienced a Mondegreen moment, and it resulted in a malapropism.
but i suspect, if you corrected the transcriber, and they learned that MT (said--Em Tee, or empty!) as a term for the metatarsal joint, they would be unlikely to make the same mistake. (well eventually, they would catch on that you meant MT Head... )
of course if there is high turn over in the transcribing pool, you will learn to say M T, (the letter Em, the letter Tee, head, not empty).
if i were the transciber, i wouldn't have known (first time round) that MT was short hand for metatarsal*. and if i worked for a pool of doctors, and i thought you were a shrink, pain in an empty head might even sound like a symptom a person might complain of!
(*and i know about metatarsal's, i fractured my 5th metatarsal in a fall--when i went to the ER, i told the doctor, i broke the bone in my foot, that was the same relative place as (and pointed to the area between my wrist and pinky)--until i broke it i confused metatarsals with metapharsals.. (hand bones)--i have never taken an anatomy class, but (crossing thread) have learned the names of many bones from cross word puzzles)
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