Last Sat. evening I was sitting around with a couple of friends (let them be known as L and C) when the subject of films came up. I mentioned my intention to see Fahrenheit 9/11, at which point Friend C, with a puzzled look on her face, said “You’re going to see ferrets tonight at eleven?” L and I eventually, when we caught our breath, apologized for the ten-minute fit of giggles this sent us into.
Anyway, feel free to post 'em (Malapropisms, that is) if ya got 'em.
I had a cow-orker who was quite the dimbulb. Really, this poor girl was not very bright. Drove us a little crazy because she had a way of wrecking our work by not thinking about what she was doing – it could set us back hours. Grr. She also demonstrated a stunning inability to learn simple tasks.
Anyway, she was the queen of malapropisms. She had some humdingers, but the one that sticks in my mind was one of her more subtle gaffes. She brought a jar to work and set it on her desk.
“What’s that?” asked my other, more Competant Co-worker.
“It’s a swear jar,” said the dimbulb Cow-orker. “I’ll put a quarter in it whenever I swear.”
Competant Co-worker puts a quarter in the jar and says “Why the f*ck’re you gonna do that, Cow-orker?”
Cow-orker: “Because I don’t want to be known for using profound language.”
Competant Co-worker: “No worries there.”
A couple years ago, a co-worker was waxing poetic about something currently in the news – the proposal making the defecation of the flag illegal. :smack:
Oof! Passing that would be a bitch!
Here is one printed in today’s NY Times in an article about Will Ferrell dropping in on Sue Herera.
Since the day CNBC began broadcasts in April 1989, Sue Herera has been a steady presence on the cable channel, chronicling the news from the business world with a tone that is often sober.
I think they mean somber.
A reporter at a newspaper I used to work at once asked me how to spell “prima donna.” She was quite surprised by my answer, since she thought the term referred to something that happened before Madonna.
A famous one in our house: We’re all gathered around the TV, watching Superman 2. Lex Luthor, played by Gene Hackman, says something to the effect of “We have to dispose of that meddler!” (referring to Superman, of course).
My brother, when he was much younger, said “What does he have against Bette Midler?”
Com-o-dee.
No, actually they are correct. “Sober” also means “showing no extremes of emotion, prejudice, and marked by sedate or earnestly thoughtful demeanor.”
Yes, “somber” fits just right there too, but a “sober tone” usually refers to a serious, no nonsense, and somewhat stodgy attitude.
Yes but if the tone is frequently ‘sober’ than what is it infrequently?
Drunken?
A Canadian cow-orker of mine used to use the phrase “to all intensive purposes” all the time. Drove me crazy.
Oh, and those people who say “I checked it out - it’s bonified”. Arrgh.
Others I see all the time on the 'net:
Loose/Loosing instead of lose/losing
Per say instead of per se
Literally when they mean virtually
Back in college, I shared a house with several other guys. B and I announced we were going to the store. K, sitting across the room on the couch, told us “I may accompany you to the store.”
B and I turned to each other and simultaneously repeated, incredulously, “Hominy cumby?!?” We had both heard “Hominy cumby to the store.”
The person sitting beside K on the couch insisted she heard him clearly say what he intended. Odd.
I clearly remember an episode of Dark Shadows where one actor led another into a crypt and intoned, “This is the tomb of my incestors.” Pause. “Did I say ‘incestors?’ Of course, I meant ‘ancestors.’”