Rocket Surgery and Other Malaphors

[underused]

Have you ever mixed your metaphors?

While not yet in the dictionary, Oxford is tracking a portmanteau to identify the kettle of fish in your wicket: **malaphors**.

The word malaphor is a blend of malapropism, meaning the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one (and named for Sheridan’s infamous Mrs Malaprop), and metaphor, a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

Along with "rocket surgery," the link offers a few common examples, including ever popular "we'll burn that bridge when we come to it."

Can you think of any you've heard? (I had a friend who used to say he didn't trust someone as far as he could throw a stick at them.) Are there any metaphors you can't keep straight? Or maybe you just want to make some up--it's pretty fun. (This list of cliches could be the bird in the hand that feeds you.)

Let's try for the whole ball of hogs.

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Image by Livi Prendergast for the Oxford Blog

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

Although neither constitutes a malaphor, I've adjusted a couple of stock phrases for similar reasons: "not my monkeys, not my circus" has become "not my clowns, not my circus" (the better to acknowledge--without thoughtlessly dehumanizing them!--that certain demographic groups' internecine conflicts are none of my business) and "having a dog in this fight"--nowadays I prefer to enter my metaphorical dogs in shows.

[underused]

I've never heard the monkeys expression, but clowns seems like a perfectly reasonable substitute. Not too long ago I started to use the "no dog in this fight" expression and stopped myself because it just sounded distasteful. It was one of those moments where I realised how many things had changed in my lifetime. It was quite nice (since it often feels like nothing ever changes).