Smart as a tack
Posted: February 1, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, malaphors, sharp as a tack, smart as a whip, wordplay, words Leave a commentThis is an example of a perfectly formed malaphor. It is a congruent conflation (the best kind of malaphor, imho) of “smart as a whip” and “sharp as a tack”, both describing someone as highly intelligent. Smart and sharp are similar sounding words, and both idioms contain the “as a” words. Also, if you sit on a tack, it does smart, doesn’t it? The mashup is also heard in the Adam Sandler movie, “Big Daddy”. Here’s the clip:
A big thanks to Martin Pietrucha who heard this one and sent it in.
He’s sharp as a whip
Posted: March 11, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, language, malaphor, malaphors, sharp as a tack, smart as a whip, words Leave a commentThis malaphor was heard on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews. Political pundit Charles Cook was describing former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, now elderly, whom he saw recently. This is a congruent conflation of “smart as a whip” and “sharp as a tack”, both meaning to be very intelligent. Both idioms contain the same number of words, and “sharp” and “smart” have similar sounds. I can see where these metaphor can be easily mixed. A big shout out to “my ol’ pal” Beatrice Zablocki for hearing this one and passing it on!
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