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

Also, what good examples can you think of?

  • wjrii@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 months ago

    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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      3 months ago

      catachresis

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

      Amazing. I had never seen this word before.

      • wjrii@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 months ago

        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
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 months 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.