That’s water over the bridge

Senior Malaphor Hunter Mike Kovacs heard this one on NBC Dateline.  He said the following when hearing the mash up:  “Hearing it made me leap to grab my phone. (Actually, I didn’t really need to leap; it was within an arm’s length.) And you can quote me on that.”  So I am.  This malaphor is actually a very commonly spoken one. It is a congruent conflation of “water over the dam” and “water under the bridge”, both meaning to describe something that is over and done with, especially an unfortunate occurrence.  The malaphor is very similar to a previous posting, “water under the dam” – see https://malaphors.com/2013/03/06/thats-water-under-the-dam/.  Everyone seems to confuse these idioms, considering that one is under and the other is over, one involves dams and the other bridges, and both involve water.  My picture doesn’t help matters….  A big thanks to Mike Kovacs for this one!