What is a malaphor??
To understand the meaning of this word, you first need to know what we call idioms in our crazy English language. An idiom is a common expression that means something different than the literal meaning of the words. You hear these idioms every day:
- Let sleeping dogs lie
- Bite the bullet
- Hit the nail on the head
- Easy as pie
- Burn the midnight oil
- Needle in a haystack
- Cross that bridge when we come to it
But what do you call it when someone takes a well-known idiom, and twists it around? Well, that’s a malaphor! A malaphor is an idiom blend, an error where two similar idioms are combined, producing a nonsensical, comical result:
- You hit the nail right on the nose.
- It’s like looking for a needle in a hayride.
- It’s time to swallow the bullet.
- He’s burning the midnight oil from both ends.
- Let dead dogs sleep.
- It’s as easy as falling off a piece of cake.
- We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.
Huh??
So there really is a name for that nonsense…malaphor.
