# My Consonances to the Bereaved **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950 "2011-04-11T13:15:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Klytus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Klytus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klytus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/21 "2011-04-18T18:57:10Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I said _consummate_ V’s! I think most men would like to consummate the beavers ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/22 "2011-04-18T19:14:15Z")
I think what they meant to say was “My consulate’s overseas.” ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/23 "2011-04-18T19:17:19Z")
At least they aren’t offering dissonances. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/24 "2011-04-18T22:18:10Z")
> [@Michael\_of\_Lucan](#): > > It’s not a malapropism. Humpty Dumpty would recognise it immediately as a “portmanteau word”. (See Lewis Carroll’s Alice for a cite.) They are combining the concepts of _condolences_ and _consolation_ into one word - _consonances_. > > You offer consonances when you combine condolences and consolation… > …It’s a great concept. A “portmanteau word” eh? Sounds more like a Palinism:D ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/25 "2011-04-18T22:56:05Z")
> [@SeldomSeen](#): > > A “portmanteau word” eh? Sounds more like a Palinism:D It sounds like Leo Gorcey to me. Or, perhaps, Mrs. Malaprop herself, for “\*f [she] reprehend[s] any thing in this world it is the use of [her] oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!” ---
**Author:** ![alindallas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@alindallas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alindallas)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/26 "2011-04-20T12:28:57Z")
Not enough pun opportunities here. Perhaps some sort of palindrome regarding seance-cons? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/27 "2011-04-20T12:47:58Z")
My consulates to the believed. ---
**Author:** ![windin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/6f9a4e/32.png) [@windin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/windin)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/28 "2011-04-20T13:37:32Z")
I’m giggling while reading these entries. This is why I’ve read here at SD all these years, I think since 2001. All the witty reparte…as well as good info on threads elsewhere. My thanks to those who post regularly. Dian ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/29 "2011-04-20T16:21:10Z")
My components for your anguish of the untimely demise of the dearly deported. ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Xenos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Marc\_Xenos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marc_Xenos)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/30 "2011-04-22T16:44:55Z")
> [@Michael\_of\_Lucan](#): > > It’s not a malapropism. Humpty Dumpty would recognise it immediately as a “portmanteau word”. (See Lewis Carroll’s Alice for a cite.) They are combining the concepts of _condolences_ and _consolation_ into one word - _consonances_. > > You offer consonances when you combine condolences and consolation - Similar to another one I’ve been hearing lately, a combination of _flustered_ and _frustrated_ to create a word called - _flustrated_. (Mostly from Detroit where they haven’t spoken English for at least 50 years.) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/31 "2011-04-22T17:04:30Z")
I’m sorry, I meant to offer my comeupance to the recently deseased. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/32 "2011-04-22T22:45:43Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > I’m sorry, I meant to offer my comeupance to the recently deseased. And offer a copy of the “Guide for the Recently Diseased”. ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Xenos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Marc\_Xenos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marc_Xenos)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/33 "2011-04-23T01:54:37Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > And offer a copy of the “Guide for the Recently Diseased”. But I’ll leave that to your own discrepancy. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/34 "2011-04-23T02:34:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I believe the phrase you are looking for is “My condiments to the beavered.” If you run that through autocorrect and then through double translation, it comes back as “Condoms and mints to all those who feel lonely”. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/35 "2011-04-23T15:50:55Z")
> [@digs](#): > > …And the widows come to church to be fawned over, and served finger sandwiches… As a vegetarian, I have to say that this grossed me out! Cremate the poor diseased deceased, and don’t chop them up for horse-drawers! ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/36 "2011-04-23T16:21:52Z")
It’s neither a malapropism nor a portmanteau, though it may well have been used by mistake. It’s a real word, and not goofily inappropriate to the subject. I can understand it being employed to mean _sympathy_ in a figurative emotional sense, since it can mean literal sympathetic vibration. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950/37 "2011-04-23T17:02:12Z")
It’s pronounced _Throat Warbler Mangrove_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-consonances-to-the-bereaved/577950.md?page=1)