The malaprop issue

[moonwise]

After seeing the following statement on CNN.com, I've lost my patience and feel a need to rant.

Astronomers have pieced together what appears to be the first direct evidence that solar storms can reek wreak havoc with comets, destroying the ion tails of icy wanderers in a collision of highly charged particles.

All definitions are taken from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

MALAPROPISM: the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context.

EXAMPLE 1: See above.

REEK: 1 : to emit smoke or vapor 2 a : to give off or become permeated with a strong or offensive odor b : to give a strong impression of some constituent quality or feature

WREAK: 2 : to give free play or course to (malevolent feeling) 3 : BRING ABOUT, CAUSE

EXAMPLE 2:

Mary was not phased fazed by the final exam.

PHASE: 1 : to adjust so as to be in a synchronized condition 2 : to conduct or carry out by planned phases 3 : to introduce in stages -- often used with in (phase in new models)

FAZE: to disturb the composure of : DISCONCERT, DAUNT (nothing fazed her)

EXAMPLE 3:

Our boss gives us free reign rein to do whatever we want.

Free reign: Easy to mistake for "free rein" b/c of the conjunction of freedom and power

Free rein: Refers to letting a horse go where it wills; loosening the reins enough that the horse is in control and not the rider.

Got one? Post it! These last two have been annoying me every time I see them. It's getting to the point where ppl think that's the correct word to use b/c everyone else uses it. It's NOT the correct word. It's WRONG.

Comments

[ramothhe.livejournal.com]

loose vs lose is one I see SO often....it annoys me too..

[arafel.livejournal.com]

That one's annoying too, but it's not strictly a malaprop - loose and lose are pronounced quite differently, and if you heard them spoken, you would not confuse one for the other. "Loose" vs. "lose" written is a fourth-grade mistake.

[ramothhe.livejournal.com]

Well then, if its a 4th grade mistake, that would go along with my advisor's (censored censored censored). The correlation fits!

[jaina.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

[arafel.livejournal.com]

*bows*

[arafel.livejournal.com]

That's pretty bad. >_< However, anyone's capable of a typo, even on a cover of a magazine. The CNN statement is plain ignorance.

[little-licks.livejournal.com]

This post reminds me of a delicious scene from Hal Hartley's Henry Fool, in which a failed writer instructs a soon-to-be infamous garbageman poet in the particulars of grammar:

You see, Simon, there are three kinds of "there."

There's "there": "There are the doughnuts."

There's "their": "It is their doughnut."

And then there's "they're," meaning "they're": "They're the doughnut people."

Got it?

:)

[ssilverfish.livejournal.com]

Brian got a great one at work one time in an e-mail about the status of the air conditioning repairs. The a/c had been out for about a month, it was the dead of summer, blazing hot with humidity, etc, etc. The e-mail from maintenance said something like:

The part that has been on order is scheduled to arrive on the 23rd. Please bare with us until then.

[catnapcat.livejournal.com]

Time to call in the calvary cavalry!!

There might be some reason to call in the hill where Jesus was crucified, or an experience of unusually intense mental suffering... but my guess is that an army component mounted on horseback would be much more useful.

I heard this one EVERY time I played Clan War.

[grandlarseny.livejournal.com]

peal vs. peel. URG. AND in that vein, heal vs. heel.

[chiruken.livejournal.com]

**blush** I am, unfortunately, one of the culprits (mis)using the second example. -_-; I've sat and stared at it for close to 20 minutes (well, once) trying to decide "Is it faze or is it phase?" Urk. Now I know. ^_^x

Another one that bothers me somewhat is the use of "Passed" and "Past". Which is which? I've determined that "Past" is like "Past-Tense" or "In the Past", while "Passed" is like "Passed by". But, then again...I was wrong about phase/faze. o.O

Chiruken
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