The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #104142   Message #2130279
Posted By: JennyO
21-Aug-07 - 06:29 AM
Thread Name: Malapropisms
Subject: RE: Malapropisms
Quite a few years ago we had a TV soap in Oz called "Number 96" about the residents of a block of flats. One of the characters was Dorrie Evans, a loudmouthed busybody type of person who was well known for her malapropisms and strange made-up words, such as:

"It's enough to drive a body beresk."

"I prefer to remain ambiguous."

"Pardon me for protruding"

"Don't cast nasturtiums..."

Others I've heard include " I feel like a social piranha", "one foul swoop" (my aunt said that one often), and an intentional one by poet Denis Kevans in his recitation "Concreto" where he says Vasco de Gama "circumcised the world in a Spanish galleon".

And I think this one was in one of the Terry Pratchett books - "We've all passed a lot of water since then".