Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Words

Many moons ago, I wrote about some of Brendan's cuter malapropisms and unique word creations, my favorites being rainbrella (umbrella) and piratescope (telescope).

Today, he sprang a new one on me...detectafying glass for magnifying glass. I think it's awesome that the words he makes up really get to the actual use of the item or what he perceives as the use. Pirates use telescopes. Detectives use magnifying glasses. You use umbrellas when it rains.

He's very practical that way. Or literal, I guess. He also just told me, in reference to Porky Pig, that Porky sounds like a name for a porcupine. Of course, he also calls the Tasmanian Devil the Great Devil, which, for some reason, I find very amusing. Maybe they have it all wrong in the Middle East and we're not the Great Satan after all. They've got the wrong guy...it's him they're after.
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3 comments:

Rich | Championable said...

That's pretty cool. I actually don't think they are malapropisms, because the words usage is valid, as opposed to a similar-sounding-but-incorrect substitution. Oh my god. Am I being a copyeditor on someone else's blog?

I'm sorry.

Detectafying glass is particularly aweseome, by the way.

6:14 AM
Dawn said...

Of course, you're right. When I began writing I planned to include a couple of examples of his using a word in an unusual or wrong way, but couldn't remember any. One thing I did think of his how he consistently calls onion rings tacos. I keep correcting him, but he continues to make the same mistake. Still, not exactly the same thing, but cute nonetheless.

9:19 AM
MiriyaB said...

My college roommate, raised in France by a mother from the States and a father from Mexico [both of Ashkenazi Jewish descent], had absorbed these slightly skewed versions of English words as a child:

nightmirror for "nightmare": well, it does serve as a nocturnal reflection of the day's fears or disappointments

great-fruit for "grapefruit": its size is certainly great, and many people think its taste is too!

3:28 AM

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