this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
128 points (99.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26654 readers
1084 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Like "does the Pope shit in the woods?" or "that train has sailed?"

Also, what good examples can you think of?

(page 2) 45 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Redacted@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I thought "cakewalk" was a clever American amalgamation of "a piece of cake" and "a walk in the park".

Turns out it's actually related to slavery, so probably doesn't count.

[–] theherk@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago
[–] Motorheadbanger@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I always liked "Hindsight is 50/50"

[–] lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

When referring to a difficult task: "That's a tough road to hold", or "a tough road to hoe", or "a tough road to [travel on]" or "a tough road to... [trails off awkwardly...]", or just "a tough road".

It's a tough row to hoe.

It's an agricultural metaphor. The row is a line of dirt in a field where you plant seeds. You use a hoe to dig the lines, remove weeds, and create little holes where you drop the seeds. Hoeing may be difficult if the soil is too hard or too full of rocks and weeds. Such a row would be a tough one to hoe.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I understand how you got there, but it sounds like a tough hoe to plow.

[–] lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I thought most hoes would be quite easy to plow

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

All the more reason to emphasize the tough ones!

Also, have you SEEN inflation lately?!?!?

[–] Denjin@lemmings.world 3 points 1 month ago

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater else you'll end up with a wet, critically injured baby.

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So, lots of examples, but not much on your question about terminology. In looking around a bit, I couldn't find a single specific term for a malapropism that "sticks," but you could fairly describe it as a form semantic drift driven by catachresis, thought the latter seems more common in literary criticism or philosophy than in linguistics.

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

catachresis

Ha! Here you are answering the actual question but nobody cares!

Amazing. I had never seen this word before.

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Even then, I can't quite find a single Linguistics term for this phenomenon, where it becomes a thing of its own or even replaces the original. 'Eggcorn' and 'Malaphor' seem to be pretty decent casual terms.

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Almost thought you'd done one yourself there with this "even then"! But I was thinking of even still (from even so). Which BTW is probably in my top 3 most hated malaphors or catachreses or whatever they are.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

I don't know about the "becomes commonplace" part, but mangled idioms are generally called "malapropisms".

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Current pet peeve: "to step foot on". Facepalm! Just coz somebody misheard "set" doesn't make "step foot" grammatical. And yet here we are.

[–] DamienGramatacus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I know these as eggcorns thanks to Adam & Joe... https://youtu.be/GyAWSnwBJLA?si=UXqG273L2lOxk05h

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›