Nigerian malaproppery

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>>... He died after an epigrammatic illness that lasted for
>>>only four days...
>
>as so often happens, a malaprop has induced the tip-of-the-tongue state
>in me.  help!  what was the writer aiming at with "epigrammatic"?
>"epidemic"?  "dramatic"?  what?

I suspect maybe "brief".

Maybe "brief" has been replaced with the sometimes-synonymous
"epigrammatic" through crude automated translation or unskillful use of a
thesaurus.

The piece quoted has some other oddities. Note that the wife appears to
take the husband's first name as well as his last one ... or is this a
compound name like Lloyd Webber?

-- Doug Wilson