Hold your jets!
Posted: March 15, 2013 Filed under: ANIMALS, horse, jets | Tags: blended idioms, cool your jets, expressions, hold your horses, horses, humor, jets, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, words Leave a commentThis malaphor was spoken by a dad who was telling his son to stop messing with the car radio. After blurting it out he immediately knew to contact the Malaphor King. This is a mash up of “hold your horses” and “cool your jets”, both meaning to slow down or control one’s excitement.
That’s water under the dam
Posted: March 6, 2013 Filed under: bridge, dam, THINGS, water | Tags: blended idioms, expressions, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, water over the dam, water under the bridge, words Leave a commentThis is a commonly used malaphor, blending two idioms – “water under the bridge” and “water over the dam” – that contain the same word (water) and have the same meaning (past and unchangeable events). Add two words that both describe direction (over and under), and two structures that are in or over water (dams and bridges) and you get a subtle mix-up. I have posted a few similar malaphors – see “that’s water over the bridge” (8/4/12) and “that’s just blood under the bridge” (11/9/12). Many thanks to John Costello for this one.
It’s time to take the bull by the tail
Posted: March 5, 2013 Filed under: bull, horns, tail | Tags: blended idioms, bull by the horns, expressions, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, tiger by the tail, words 3 CommentsThis visual mash-up mixes “take the bull by the horns” (confront an issue openly) with probably “has the world by the tail” or “has a tiger by the tail”. Heads and tails are part of the confusion, and I don’t think either end is preferable. Thanks to Joseph Newcomer for sending this one to me!
She went off into tangents
Posted: March 1, 2013 Filed under: tangents | Tags: blended idioms, expressions, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, off in space, off target, tangents, words Leave a commentThis one was uttered by a daughter describing her teacher to her mother. It is a mash up of “off on a tangent” and ” off into space”. As “my ol’ pal” notes, being “off target” might also play in the mix here. Thanks to Frances for this one!
English: law of tangents – sketch. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
That’s the cat calling the kettle black
Posted: February 24, 2013 Filed under: black, cat, kettle | Tags: black cat, blended idioms, cat calls, expressions, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, pot calling the kettle black, words Leave a commentThis is a mash up of “the pot calling the kettle black” and “cat calls”. Let’s also throw in black cats for good measure, and maybe “cattle calls”? Pot and cat are three letter words ending in t, another possible cause for confusion. Thanks to Kimberly for providing this gem.
Black Cat Portrait (Photo credit: Georgo10)
He got kind of thrown into the gauntlet
Posted: February 23, 2013 Filed under: fire, gauntlet, run | Tags: blended idioms, expressions, humor, language, malaphors, Matt Barkley, mixed idioms, National Football League, New York Jets, run the gauntlet, thrown into the fire, words 1 Comment
Taken by James Santelli, Neon Tommy. September 24, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is another great one from the sports world. At the NFL combine, Matt Barkley of USC had this to say about former USC QB Marc Sanchez:
“He got kind of thrown into the gauntlet in New York.”
This is a mash-up of “thrown into the fire” and “run the gauntlet”. Thanks to Gerry for this beauty, approaching “the master” level.
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/jets/post/_/id/20940/barkley-will-learn-from-sanchez-experiences
Life is not all guns and roses
Posted: February 21, 2013 Filed under: guns, roses | Tags: blended idioms, expressions, guns, Guns N' Roses, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, roses, words 2 CommentsA big thank you to Meesy for sending this one to me. She stated that her husband lectured her daughter that “life is not all guns and roses”. This is a mash up of “a bed of roses” (a peaceful and easy life), “days of wine and roses” (prosperous and happy time) and the band Guns N’ Roses. The statement on its face might not be correct these days considering there are an estimated 875 million guns in the world (with about 275 million of them in the United States). Welcome to the jungle.
Guns ‘n’ Roses (Photo credit: s i n h a)
That would be a tough nut to swallow
Posted: February 20, 2013 Filed under: ACTION, crack, FOOD, nut, pill, swallow, THINGS | Tags: bitter pill to swallow, blended idioms, conflations, crack, expressions, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, nut, pill, swallow, tough nut to crack, words 3 CommentsThis clever congruent conflation is a blend of “tough nut to crack” and “bitter pill to swallow”, both referring to hard things to do. Both also contain four words, and both involve actions. And of course a tough nut is always hard to swallow,
right? A big shout out to Susan E for sending me this one that she heard her husband utter last week.
Every tree has a silver lining
Posted: February 19, 2013 Filed under: alley, COLORS, PLACES, silver, THINGS, tree | Tags: blended idioms, cloud, every cloud has a silver lining, expressions, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, tree, words Leave a commentThe speaker was obviously meaning to say “every cloud has a silver lining”, but where did the tree come from? Possibly he was thinking of a silver maple, those messy trees that every yard seems to have. Or, as my “ol pal” suggests, the word “sliver” instead of “silver” floated up in the brain soup, suggesting wood. “Barking up the wrong tree” also might have been in the mix, even though the meaning is not remotely close to the intended meaning. Any other suggestions out there? Thanks to Art for sending this one to the site.
The possibilities are mindless
Posted: February 18, 2013 Filed under: THINGS | Tags: blended idioms, expressions, humor, language, malaphors, mindless, mixed idioms, possibilities are endless, words 3 CommentsThis is another beauty contributed by Cicely. It is a mix of “possibilities are endless” and “mind boggling” I think. Or perhaps it describes which Stooge you prefer.
Malaphors 
Recent Comments