Cop Eek At

Last Thursday, Beth Moore posted "Malapropisms" on her blog, The LPM Blog. It included the definition of a malapropism and an invitation to readers to post their own examples. In case you need a little help, here's the definition of a malapropism from the online dictionary: (I not only needed help with the definition, I also had to hear it pronounced a couple of times before I could get it right!)

1.an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, esp. by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.

2.an instance of this, as in “Lead the way and we'll precede.”

I started reading the comments, which were already up to 43 in the first morning after posting. I was laughing my way through them when I decided to add one of my own. Before doing so, I went back to the original post and realized it was now up to 122 comments! I was blown away -- I'm not a reader of many famous blogs so this was a new experience to me to literally watch the comment counter go off the charts before my very eyes. As of today, there are like 519 comments. Kind of reminds me of my own comment counter! Ha!

If you want a good laugh, check them out:

http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/2008/07/malapropisms.html

I'm including a couple of favorites to whet your appetite and start your brain in motion...

Phylis R. said... One day my sweet mom was marvelling at how fast the grandkids could do all that "tex-mexing" on the cell phones.
My Grandmother excitedly told me, "I'm knitting you a beautiful African for your wedding!" She meant "Afghan"- as in wool blanket!

vonda said... my sweet grandmama always called a cellular phone a secular phone. She never could say it right, even when we tried to sound it out for her!

I was reading some of the comments to Scott and he said, "You ought to do a post like that and get examples from our friends because they are a lot more fun when you know the person." So, at the risk of being a copy cat, I thought I'd do just that. How about sharing some of the malapropisms from your family. Before you do, I'll share a few of ours...

When Michelle was debating medical malpractice, at the age of 11, she kept referring to the "genealogist" rather than the "gynecologist"...she also had a hard time saying "specific" and instead repeatedly said "pacific".

Lately, she's been rather "confuddled".

When Johnny was a little guy, he wanted to be the "ring barrier" in his uncle's wedding and thought I ought to make him a "broom" costume to go with Catie's bride costume. In his first year of debate, he cited problems with the "electrical college" rather than the "electoral" one we're all familiar with.

I remember being in a restaurant with my Grandfather when he ordered the "quickie of the day" -- the rest of us had quiche.

Yesterday Scott warned us our "fertilized" marshmallow sticks would be hot. And we thought he was just "sterilizing" them!

Oh so many examples! My sister, very innocently, had the mother-of-all-malapropisms in sixth grade, but it was so bad I cannot even include it here. All I can say is, my poor, poor mother.

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Now, I'm not holding my bread that I'll rake up 519 comments lickety spilt, but I'm sure you might have a few choice exemplaries to submit.

So I'm a copy cat -- bring it on!