mishmatch

Jason Kelce, ESPN analyst and color commentator, said this single word malaphor during the Steelers/Saints game in Paris when he noted that tight end Pittsburgh Steelers Darnell Washington was much taller and bigger than the guy who was covering him. It is a single word blend of “mishmash” (confused assortment of different things) and “mismatch” (wrongly matched items or people that do not go together well). Word blends are a subset of malaphors. They are unconscious blends of words to make an unintentional new word. The word sounds or looks correct at first blush, but then on closer examination is incorrect. Examples on my website are “Buckminster Palace” (Buckingham and Westminster, and/or possibly Buckminster Fuller) and “split-minute decision” (split second and last minute). Word nerds might say these are portmanteaus, but a portmanteau is a combination of two (or more) words or morphemes, and their definitions, into one new word.

A big thanks to Bruce Ryan for catching this one in the end zone for a malaphor TD!