Seems to me it would be fun to have a thread of malaprops. This particular one might also go in the "dumber than ..." thread or in arnie's latin thread, but I'll use it here.

quote:

---

I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people.
-- former US Vice President Dan Quayle

---

That particular one may be an urban legend, though oft-reported, but there's no question that Quayle and many other politicans are rich sources of malaprops.

Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.
-- Dan Quayle

We shall reach greater and greater platitudes of achievement.
-- the late Richard J. Daley, long-time mayor of my fair city

quote:

---

I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people.
-- former US Vice President Dan Quayle

---

Actually, that particular Quayle "quote" was made up. Representative Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island, a Republican congressperson, attributed it to him in a speech as a joke, but many papers took it as a true quote. See the Urban Legends Reference Pages.

That site includes for good measure a number of real "Quaylisms", including:

• "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
• "I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."
• "We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
• "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

OK, did anyone see "The Family Circus" cartoon in the newspaper yesterday, Aug. 22? Well, it was a very cute malaprop.

EDIT: See the pic below that Arnie so nicely put in for me! (Sorry, I still can't get the images to work right. This is posted on my home page. Any help, greatfully accepted!)

Edit: Oops! Is this a mondegreen?

[This message was edited by Morgan on Sat Aug 24th, 2002 at 9:36.]

Just heard: "I generally jump to confusions"

Here ya go...

These are a couple of letters that Dear Abby was at a total loss with:

Dear Abby,
A couple of women moved in across the hall from me. One is a
middle-aged gym teacher, and the other is a social worker in her
mid-twenties. These two women go everywhere together, and I've never
seen a man go into their apartment or come out. Do you think they could
be Lebanese?


Dear Abby,
My mother is mean and short-tempered. Do you think she is going
through her mental pause?

A common malapropism of Sam Goldwyn, the late film mogul, is: "Oral contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on"!

Kalleh, that is great! I found some more about Goldwyn.
In the 1940s the movie mogul Sam Goldwyn misused language so much that malaprops became known as Goldwynisms.

• A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
  
• I read part of it all the way through.
  
• I never liked him and I probably always will.
  
• Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named William.
  
• For your information, I would like to ask a question.
  
• Now, gentlemen, listen slowly.
  
• In two words: im-possible!
  
• Include me out.

The Goldwyn examples you cite are not, strictly speaking, malapropisms.

A malapropism (from the character Mrs Malaprop) is the use of one word in mistake for another.

For example, "Whisky is a good anecdote for snakebite" or "We'll have to wash them in a strong deterrent".

Richard English

>>"the Goldwyn examples you cite are not, strictly speaking, malapropisms"

Quite right. But what would you call them? The closest I can think of is Irish Bull, but that doesn't seem to be a precise fit either.

Why not just call them Goldwynisms?

Richard English

It sounds like Goldwyn had a form of dyslexia. I have a girlfriend who makes the exact same kind of mistakes. She mixes up her idioms and collocations and comes out with some hilarious phrases at times (they're in Greek so I won't list them). She has been diagnosed with a form of dyslexia. I will ask her if there is a name for it (but she'll probably get it wrong!).

amuseamouse

reviving a thread...

I read about this commom malapropism on that languagelog site I posted about in links for linguaphiles:

"Andrew Sullivan notes a NYT reader review of Fahrenheit 9/11 saying that the 'Bush Administration damns itself through its own actions, its own words, its own lies...all documented for prosperity.' This is a surprisingly common malapropism. Google has 21 instances of 'documented for prosperity', 8 instances of 'preserving * * for prosperity', etc., most of which seem to be sincere mistakes."