Here’s a little more from a book I shared with you in the past. It is Going to Hell in a Hen Basket: An Illustrated Dictionary of Modern Malapropisms, by Robert Alden Rubin. Don’t forget what Merriam-Webster tells us a malapropism is:
“a usually humorous misapplication of a word or phrase; specifically: a blundering use of a word that sounds somewhat like the one intended but is ludicrously wrong in the context”
· brunt-force trauma, brunt-force drama, blunt-force drama
Confuses a medical term, blunt-force trauma (the damage to a body from an impact that does not penetrate the skin), with a description of what accompanies the brunt (main impact) of a blow.
· cat before the horse
Cart is pronounced like cat in such places as Boston. However, cat before the horse appears instead of cart before the horse often enough to suggest that many writers get the idiom wrong, as if one normally prioritized horses over cats.
· clusterphobia
The condition takes its name from the Latin claustrum—a lock or bolt—and describes someone nervous about being locked in a small space. But a cluster of people can indeed produce both claustrophobia and agoraphobia (fear of crowds).
· constellation prize
A common malapropism that qualifies as an eggcorn only if the runners-up get gold stars. Confused with consolation prize.
Forgot about eggcorns? Check a couple of our past articles here:
· https://episystechpubs.com/2015/03/26/editors-corner-eggcorns-3/
· https://episystechpubs.com/2015/03/27/editors-corner-more-eggcorns-for-foghorn-leghorn/
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