LL-L "Lexicon" 2005.06.06 (03) [E]

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
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From: Kevin Caldwell <kcaldwell31 at comcast.net>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2005.06.03 (15) [E]

> Tom, was your post triggered by my silly fake-ignorant talk today, the one
> that Gabriele suspected of coming from a bottle?  (No booze here -- rest
> assured!)  It capitalizes on a person's uncertain command of "big words"
> that happen to be Romanisms:
>
>
> > I most empathetically resemble the tagged-on negative > implification of
> > that remark, and I'm undeservedly unanymous > in that!Some people with
> > less firm proficiency of English may wonder about it (or so they
> > should).
> > It was just silliness.  It was based on a British situation comedy's
> > character (Mrs. Slocum) who often uses "big words" wrongly and likes to
> > say "And I am unanymous in that!" (the joke being that a single person
> > cannot be unanimous, that she believes it means something like
> "adamant,"
> > "unyielding," "steadfast" or "firmly convinced").  It is also based on
> the
> > commonly quoted "ignurnd" phrase "I resemble that remark" in place of
> > correct "I resent that remark."  To make matters worse, I wrote
> > "implification" instead of "implication" (cross-pollenized by
> > "amplification"), "undeservedly" instead of "unreservedly," and
> > "empathetically" instead of "emphatically," two very different things.
>
> You see?  Thanks to its Romance heritage in English you get to have oodles
> of fun and games, so much more fun than in those "drab, pure" Germanic
> sister languages.  ;-)
>
> On the slightly more serious side of things, though, I can always justify
> all this silliness by saying that play is very important in learning and
> discovery.  At the very least it make folks think about words, their usage
> and history.
>
> Regards ... oops! ... greetings,
> Reinhard/Ron

There was an American comedian, Norm Crosby, whose entire schtick was
replacing long words with other words that sounded similar but had entirely
different meanings.  In other words, malapropisms.

Kevin Caldwell

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