exasperating the situation

[Neal Whitman]

Instead of a malapropism (as noted in one followup message), maybe it's just metathesis with progressive voicing assimilation of the [b]: [srb]->[spr].

Neal Whitman

On Sep 19, 2010, at 1:51 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      exasperating the situation
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Christine O'Donnell said this week in an interview that something or other
> "only exasperates the situation."
>
> I've heard the substitution of "exasperate" for "exacerbate"  enough times
> to convince me that it isn't just a slip of the tongue.
>
> Over 6,000 raw Googlits on "to exasperate the situation."
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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