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prettygoodwordmalaphor (MAL-eh-for) - n., a blend of two idioms, aphorisms, or clichés.
Best example I've seen so far is "that's the way the cookie bounces," though "we'll burn that bridge when we come to it" is up there. I tend to meet these mostly in the corporate world, as the sort of people who are easily infected by trendy biz-speak also seem prone to them. It is essentially a phrasal equivalent of a malapropism, and indeed was coined (in a 1976 Washington Post op-ed by Lawrence Harrison) as a blend of malapropism and metaphor. Malapropism is, of course, from Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Sheridan's play The Rivals, named from French mal à propos, inappropriate. Which these things certainly are. There is, btw, a blog at malaphors.com devoted to collecting examples out the wild, so to speak. Very entertaining.
Admin note: Posting is likely to be light over the next couple weeks due to external obligations. But to give the dog his due, that's water under the dam.
---L.
Best example I've seen so far is "that's the way the cookie bounces," though "we'll burn that bridge when we come to it" is up there. I tend to meet these mostly in the corporate world, as the sort of people who are easily infected by trendy biz-speak also seem prone to them. It is essentially a phrasal equivalent of a malapropism, and indeed was coined (in a 1976 Washington Post op-ed by Lawrence Harrison) as a blend of malapropism and metaphor. Malapropism is, of course, from Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Sheridan's play The Rivals, named from French mal à propos, inappropriate. Which these things certainly are. There is, btw, a blog at malaphors.com devoted to collecting examples out the wild, so to speak. Very entertaining.
Admin note: Posting is likely to be light over the next couple weeks due to external obligations. But to give the dog his due, that's water under the dam.
---L.
