play malaprops

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 6/6/07, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> from my friend Tim McDaniel in e-mail 6/4/07, about the intelligence
> of penguins:
>
>    Sorry to cast nasturtiums on your totemic bird.
>
> i told him i appreciated the play malaprop, and he replied that it
> wasn't original with him, but (he thought) pretty old, possibly from
> the Dowager Duchess of Denver in the Lord Peter Wimsey novels.
>
> i got 76 google webhits (with "similar pages" etc. removed) for "cast
> nasturtiums", 86 for "casting nasturtiums", and 4 for "casts
> nasturtiums", so it has a modest web presence.

It's even in the OED now, under sense 4 of "nasturtium" (first cite
from _Ulysses_).

-----
4. humorous. _to cast nasturtiums on_ (also _at_): = to cast
aspersions upon s.v. ASPERSION n. 5.
1922 J. JOYCE Ulysses 307 Don't cast your nasturtiums on my character.
1933 D. L. SAYERS Murder must Advertise i. 22 He's been a long time in
the firm and doesn't like any nasturtiums cast at it. 1998 Independent
(Nexis) 27 Apr. (Features section) 8, I should hate to cast
nasturtiums on the spotless reputations of the dancers.
-----


--Ben Zimmer

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