He put a burr in her bonnet
Posted: December 28, 2012 Filed under: ANIMALS, bee, bonnet, burr, CLOTHING | Tags: bee in her bonnet, blended idioms, burr under the saddle, expressions, malaphors, mixed idioms, words Leave a commentThis is a confused conflation of “have a burr under his saddle” (irritated by something) and “put a bee in her bonnet” (give someone an idea), contributed by Steve Grieme. Perhaps the speaker was thinking of an irritating idea? Or could it possibly be a confusion of burrs and bees? I remember that song – “Let me tell you ’bout the burrs and the bees, and the flowers and the trees”….
That’s a real ball of worms
Posted: December 18, 2012 Filed under: ANIMALS, THINGS, wax, worms | Tags: ball of wax, blended idioms, can of worms, expressions, malaphors, mixed idioms, words 1 Comment
worms (Photo credit: Wahj)
This is a mash-up of “can of worms” (a situation which causes difficulty when starting to deal with it) and “the whole ball of wax” (everything). The mix up may have been caused by the words worms and wax, both starting with w, and that both idioms have the preposition “of” in them. In addition, the context was an administrative hearing where the speaker was describing his home life, indicating that everything was a mess, hence the conflation of the two phrases.
He led me on a blind goose chase
Posted: November 28, 2012 Filed under: ACTION, alley, ANIMALS, goose, PLACES | Tags: blended idioms, blind alley, expressions, futile pursuits, malaphors, mixed idioms, wild goose chase, words 2 CommentsThis is a mash up of “down a blind alley” and “led on a wild goose chase”, both meaning an unproductive or futile pursuit. Blind and wild are similar sounding words, so the brain chose the wrong swirling fragment. This seems to be a common malaphor, based on the many internet hits. Reminds me of the proverb: A blind goose is as good as a deaf duck (ok, I made that up – just trying to be a wise quacker).
He’s out to butter his own nest
Posted: November 27, 2012 Filed under: ANIMALS, bread, butter, FOOD, nest, PLACES, THINGS | Tags: blended idioms, bread and butter, expressioins, feather, feather your own next, know which side your bread is buttered on, malaphors, mixed idioms, words 3 Comments
English: A pat of butter, served on a leaf, with a butter knife and bread (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This slippery malaphor is a mash up of “feather your own nest” (use power and prestige to one’s advantage selfishly) and perhaps “know which side your bread is buttered on” (to be loyal to the person who will benefit you the most). “Bread and butter” (someone’s livelihood or source of income) could also be a player here. There is also an Hungarian expression -több mindent jelenthet – roughly translated “butter one’s bread on both sides” and meaning leaving nothing for others to argue or complain. My ol’ pal indicates “buttering your own bread” (using power to gain income selfishly) may also be part of this mix up.
We’ll be here ’til the cows come to Capistrano
Posted: November 20, 2012 Filed under: ANIMALS, Capistrano, cow | Tags: Alabama, Birmingham, blended idioms, expressions, malaphors, mixed idioms, San Juan Capistrano California, swallows return to Capistrano, till the cows come home, words Leave a commentThis beauty was uttered by Alabama State Representative John Rogers, in response to questions about his protests outside a hospital that is about to be closed. This is a mash up of “until the cows come home” (for a very long time) and the song “when the Swallows come back to Capistrano”. Warning: when you visit San Juan Capistrano, be sure and watch out for cow droppings from the sky….
http://blog.al.com/archiblog/2012/11/why_not_give_rep_john_rogers_w.html
Thanks to David S. for sending this one to me all the way from Birmingham.
English: Basilica San Juan Capistrano, California, United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
She has a memory like a hawk
Posted: November 17, 2012 Filed under: ANIMALS, elephant, hawk | Tags: blended idioms, expressions, eyes like a hawk, hawk, malaphors, memory like an elephantp, mixed idioms, words Leave a commentThis is a conflation of the idioms “memory of an elephant” (excellent recall) and “eyes like a hawk” (very perceptive). The speaker has his animals and senses mixed up it seems. Or, perhaps hawks have excellent memories?
The 800 pound gorilla in the room
Posted: November 15, 2012 Filed under: ANIMALS, elephant, gorilla | Tags: 800 pound gorilla, blended idioms, elephant in the room, expressions, malaphors, mixed idioms, words 1 CommentThis one comes from the Chicago Tribune, on a story about malaphors. Here is an excerpt:
“One particular idiom blend pops up with such regularity that it appears poised to replace the phrase from which it sprung.
In a recent New York Times story about the economic
state of Youngstown, Ohio, a community development director called the city’s large swath of vacant properties the “800-pound gorilla in the room.”
An 800-pound gorilla usually refers to someone or something so large and powerful that it lives by its own set of rules. Its origins can be found in a riddle:
Question: “Where does an 800-pound gorilla sleep?”
Answer: “Anywhere it wants to.”
It’s also used to describe a dominant player. Urban Dictionary defines it thusly: “An overbearing entity in a specific industry or sphere of activity. A seemingly unbeatable presence always to be reckoned with; whose experience, influence and skill threatens to defeat competitors with little effort.”
Sometimes the gorilla surpasses a mere 800 pounds. (“Whose the 900-pound gorilla now?” asked a headline on a recent tech story about Facebook overtaking Google as the biggest web site in 2010. Sometimes the gorilla sheds a few hundred pounds. ( Colorado’s governor-elect was quoted last month calling the state’s billion-dollar shortfall “the 600-pound gorilla.”)
And sometimes the gorilla is an elephant.
“The elephant in the room” refers to an obvious truth that no one is addressing. A health educator in California’s Central Valley was quoted earlier this week saying, “If there’s an elephant in the room with the obesity epidemic, it’s soda consumption.”
Sometimes the elephant in the room is pink, further underscoring how difficult it would be to overlook the metaphorical pachyderm.
So when idiom meets idiom and the proverbial room is filled with a proverbial gorilla, are we ignoring an obvious overbearing, unbeatable force? Or simply replacing the elephant with another giant animal for variety sake?
Regardless, the saying’s meaning remains more or less intact. And a little blending keeps our age-old idioms from getting stale.”
Take the reins by the ears
Posted: October 18, 2012 Filed under: ANIMALS, BODY PARTS, THINGS | Tags: blended idioms, bull by the horns, expressions, mixed idioms, reindeer, take the reins, words Leave a commentA fellow blogger, TerriblyWrite, and follower of this site sent this gem to me. She said her daughter’s boss uttered it, and when explained that it was a malaphor mix of “take the reins” and “take the bull by the horns”, he responded, “Oh, I thought it had something to do with reindeer.”
It was a case of the tail biting the dog
Posted: September 18, 2012 Filed under: ACTION, ANIMALS, BODY PARTS | Tags: bark worse than his bite, blended idioms, dog, expressionis, malaphors, mixed idioms, tail wagging the dog, wag, words 2 CommentsI think this is a mash up of “tail wagging the dog” (a situation where a small part is controlling the whole of something) and “his bark is worse than his bite” (person seems more hostile than he really is). The latter includes the visual of a dog biting and hence the confusion. I say think because there are other possible explanations for the mix up. My “ol pal” thinks the phrase “man bites dog” (aphorism in journalism which describes how an unusual, infrequent event is more likely to be reported as news than an ordinary, everyday occurrence) is involved since it evokes a visual of both parties biting. There is also the phrase “don’t bite the hand that feeds you” (don’t treat someone badly who is helping you). I guess this is an unsolved “case”. Any other suggestions?
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