Is it “Defend On Your Own” night?
Posted: February 8, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, fend for yourself, malaphor, malaphors, stand on your own two feet, words 4 CommentsThe contributor says her husband says this when she doesn’t feel like cooking for dinner. The malaphor prompts a visual of the family opening the refrigerator and fighting for the best leftovers. This is a mashup of “stand on one’s (own) two feet” (act independently) and “fend for (oneself)” (take care of oneself without the assistance of others). I suppose the speaker was thinking of the word “fend” but uttered “defend” instead. A tip of the hat to Lori Snider for sending this one in!
Malaphors 
Not a malaphor, but I can’t resist sharing Calvin Trillin’s comment about leftovers. He wrote that his mother served leftovers every night. After about 30 years, it dawned on him to ask, “Left over from what?”
Love Calvin Trillin. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe also influenced by “depend” as in “you’ll have to depend on yourself”. I could see depend + fend making defend.
Yes! Good spot.