some kind of malaprop

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Wed Mar 14 19:45:42 UTC 2007


It's one of those EXTREME malapropisms, resulting from a confusion between (near) antonyms.

--Charlie
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>>>
>>> elizabeth daingerfield zwicky sent me to

 http://ecochildsplay.blogspot.com/2007/03/sigg-update.html

with instructions to look for "innocuous".  here's the relevant passage:
>>>
>>>    According to the results of our evaluation, use of a SIGG bottle does not add to the beverage any particles and/or components which are innocuous to human health. Dr. Ulrich Nehring, European Institute Nehring
>>>
so "injurious" >> "innocuous".  i'd guess this was a classical malapropism -- Nehring got the word he wanted, but it's the wrong one from other people's perspective -- but it could have been a Fay/Cutler malaprop, an inadvertent error in word retrieval.
>>>
>>> arnold

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