He really rubs him up the wrong tree – Part 2
Posted: September 29, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, idiom origins, language, malaphors, words 3 Comments“My ol’ Pal” notes that there is a distinction between the American and the British idiom for annoying someone. As usual, she is right. The British say “he really rubs me up the wrong way”, while we in the States say “he really rubs me the wrong way”. The speaker who uttered the subject malaphor might have been British as the mix-up makes even more sense, if a mix-up can make sense. Incidentally, the origin of both phrases refers to the stroking of an animal’s fur in the wrong direction (from tail to head), causing the animal to become annoyed. My cats certainly get very irritated with me when I do that. Speaking of the Brits, they also use the phrase”rub up” to describe trying to recall something.
He’s the head kahuna
Posted: September 11, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Beach Blanket Bingo, big kahuna, BigKahuna, blended idioms, Cliff Robertson, expressions, head honcho, humor, language, malaphors, Martin Milner, mixed idioms, words 2 Comments
Sandra Dee as Gidget in the 1959 film, (VHS cover) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Elaine Hatfield said this to me in the car the other day. She immediately wrote it down so that we would remember it (sign of a good malaphor). This is a mash up of “big kahuna” and “head honcho”, both meaning the person in charge. The use of the term “big kahuna” in reference to surfing can be traced back to the 1959 film Gidget, in which “The Big Kahuna“, played by Cliff Robertson, (Martin Milner in the TV episode), was the leader of a group of surfers. The term then became commonplace in Beach Party films of the 1960s such as Beach Blanket Bingo, where the “Big Kahuna” was the best surfer on the beach
It’s been a long road to hoe
Posted: April 25, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blended idioms, hoe, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, road, row, tough row to hoe 1 CommentThis is a mash up of “tough row to hoe” and “long road”, both meaning long, difficult situations. Row and road sound similar, adding to the confusion. I saw this one in today’s morning Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“I’m very happy. It’s been a long road to hoe,” Mr. Berry, the project architect, said as he took photographs of the mostly finished product and checked for any problems that needed to be fixed.
What about a malaphor tee shirt?
Posted: December 31, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentHello malaphor lovers!
Posted: July 9, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 4 CommentsWHAT IS A MALAPHOR?
A malaphor is a mixture of two idioms, creating a sort of malaprop in metaphor form. They are uttered by everyone unintentionally. The best ones are the most subtle, sounding correctat first blush and then leading to quizzical looks.
ORIGIN
It is believed that the term was first coined by Lawrence Harrison, a government official in the Agency for International Development, in an op-ed piece for the Washington Post in 1976. I later defined the term in Urban Dictionary.
PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG
I have been collecting malaphors for many years, and have posted some periodically on Facebook with friends. This blog is my way of sharing these goofy mixtures with everyone. I plan to post one daily – a “malaphor of the day”. That way you will get a smile or chuckle each day, or a bit of torture, if you find them stupid and have masochistic tendencies. I also would like to hear from you about my posted malaphors, and/or submit any that you have heard or read recently. I will then post them, giving you credit of course. Keep your ears open!
Dave Hatfield
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