Look who’s calling the kettle black
Posted: May 13, 2013 Filed under: black, kettle | Tags: black, blended idioms, congruent conflation, expressions, humor, kettle, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, pot, talk, words Leave a commentThis is a congruent conflation of “look who’s talking” and “that’s the pot calling the kettle black”, both referring to pointing out hypocritical behavior. The best and most common malaphors are mixtures of phrases that have the same or similar meaning.
The project is going to pot in a handbasket
Posted: September 15, 2012 Filed under: ACTION, THINGS | Tags: blended idioms, expressions, handbasket, hell in a handbasket, malaphors, mixed idioms, pot, words 1 CommentThis is a mash up of two similar meaning idioms – “going to pot” (declining or getting worse) and “going to hell in a handbasket” (a situation quickly headed to disaster). My guess is that the speaker did not want to say the word “hell” and so “pot” came to mind. Moreover, my notes indicate this phrase was spoken in the 70s, so it is possible that the speaker indeed had “pot” on his mind….
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