exasperating the situation

[Jonathan Lighter]

Or is it "maceration"?

JL

On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: exasperating the situation
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 4:05 PM -0400 9/19/10, Neal Whitman wrote:
> >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
>
> Maybe it's because of O'Donnell's celebrated issues with masturbation
> (cf e.g.
>
> http://www.borowitzreport.com/2010/09/17/delaware-masturbators-march-against-odonnell/
> )
> --or is that "masperation"?
>
> LH
>
> >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
>
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