amphibology
Dec. 19th, 2005 07:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordamphibology (also amphiboly) - n., an ambiguous statement arising from ambiguous grammar.
"I shall waste no time reading your manuscript." Or as Groucho's Cap'n Spaulding once boasted, "I once shot an elephant in my pajamas." From Latin amphibolia, ambiguity, from Greek amphibolos, doubtful, + -logia, -logy.
---L.
"I shall waste no time reading your manuscript." Or as Groucho's Cap'n Spaulding once boasted, "I once shot an elephant in my pajamas." From Latin amphibolia, ambiguity, from Greek amphibolos, doubtful, + -logia, -logy.
---L.
