I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark
Posted: July 5, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, language, malaphor, malaphors, shot in the dark, take a stab, wild guess, words Leave a commentA double malaphor? This beauty was said on a British show called “Tipping Point.” A contestant said “I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark.” This is a triple conflation of “wild guess”, “take (or make) a stab”, and “a shot in the dark”, all meaning a guess with very little assurance of its accuracy. Barry Eigen, who heard this, suggested that this was a double malaphor. I did post “wild stab” (https://malaphors.com/2013/11/07/just-a-wild-stab/) in 2013, but this one does add “in the dark”, creating a double malaphor. “A stab in the dark” is an accepted phrase, but adding the word “wild” to it makes it a juicy malaphor. A big thanks to Barry Eigen for hearing his one in London town and passing it on!
Just a wild stab
Posted: November 7, 2013 Filed under: guess | Tags: blended idioms, expressions, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, take a stab at, wild guess, words 3 CommentsMalaphors appear everywhere, and this one appeared as a response to one of my malaphor postings. When I posted “I will not yield to a monkey court”, my good friend and avid malaphor follower Laszlo Veres responded, “was he talking to his fellow Dems? (just a wild stab… wait…wow, I just invented a malaphor!”). Wild stab is a mash up of “wild guess” and “take (or make) a stab”. The unintentional malaphor response to a malaphor makes this one a particular favorite of mine!
It’s a crap in the dark
Posted: December 26, 2012 Filed under: BODY PARTS, THINGS | Tags: blended idioms, crapshoot, expressions, malaphors, mixed idioms, shot in the dark, wild guess, words 1 CommentThis is a mash up of “shot in the dark” (wild guess) and “a crap-shoot” (risky enterprise), resulting in a phrase obviously not intended. This beauty was found in HomeRecording.com:
“This is just a crap in the dark, but have you tried disabling the drivers you don’t need in sonar?”
http://homerecording.com/bbs/user-forums-brand/cakewalk-sonar-forum/msdmo-dll-error-sonar-29157/
Recent Comments