Here’s a short humorous post for you on this Friday.
Have you ever heard someone mix up two different idioms or metaphors to make something confusing?
I recently viewed a Reddit post about “malaphors”. For those of you who don’t know what it is, the Oxford Dictionary defines it as this:
The word malaphor is a blend of malapropism, meaning the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one (and named for Sheridan’s infamous Mrs Malaprop), and metaphor, a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
While viewing the post, I came across some pretty hilarious ones such as:
- “It’s not rocket surgery”
- “We’ll burn that bridge when we get there”
- “It’s just like falling off a bike”
- “A few crayons short of a picnic”
- “You can lead a horse to water, but don’t try to cross it mid-stream”
There are plenty of others and you can find them here. And another source to find some funny results is here.
If you’re teaching a lesson on idioms, metaphors, similes, make sure you teach your students the correct phrases – maybe for fun, see if they can mix them up to create something new.
If you have any malaphors you’ve heard over the years, please share them in the comments below!
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