Comments on: How to define this language mistake?

Question: How to define this language mistake?

suki — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:08:31 -0800

Is there a term for mangling two words to create a new word or term? In conversations with two different people they've incorrectly combined words or terms to express themselves.

During the first discussion, the guy described his misunderstanding of what someone was saying by stating, "I misconscrewed it up."

The second time, another guy explained his inability to talk while upset by saying he was, "flustrated."

Malaprop is the closest I've come, but it's not quite what happens. And I'd love to hear other examples, because I think there's a strange brilliance to this phenomenon.

By: nowonmai

nowonmai — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:10:33 -0800

Portmanteau.

By: kcm

kcm — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:10:40 -0800

Portmanteau is also close but not technically 100% what you're asking.

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:22:45 -0800

Malapropism comes close.

The Sopranos was good for that:

We're in a f***ing stagmire here!

By: adamrice

adamrice — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:23:38 -0800

Spoonerism.

By: GaelFC

GaelFC — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:25:19 -0800

I like Sniglet, though not all those words are mashed-up words.

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:31:42 -0800

It's not spoonerism. More like a portmanteau combined with a malapropism. So I'd go with malamanteau or a portmanpropism.

By: PercussivePaul

PercussivePaul — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:35:14 -0800

searching wikipedia for the answer to this question (which I coulnd't find) turned out to be really run. i could barely contain my laughter when reading these Murrayisms.

By: googly

googly — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:52:00 -0800

Another possibility: neologism.

It is not precisely what you are talking about, but (unlike most portmanteaus) many neologisms do incorporate the combination of words in a slightly incorrect fashion.

By: tiny crocodile

tiny crocodile — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:52:39 -0800

My best portmanteau word: Spontanimosity!

Describes the experience of meeting and instantly disliking someone. I didn't coin it but I knew the gal who did.

By: clh

clh — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:53:57 -0800

I immediately thought Sniglet as well. Especially in the case of "flustrated," as I have heard that word used.

By: mosk

mosk — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:54:25 -0800

Hmmm...for words intended to be used only once or twice, perhaps nonce word might be an apt description. If the word has legs ("e.g., "truthiness"), it may be a neologism.

By: Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:57:40 -0800

And of course Colemanballs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colemanballs

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:04:55 -0800

It's much, much more portmanteau than malapropism. malapropism suggests that the person saying it has made a mistake whereas something like flustrated or misconscrewed sounds deliberate.

By: The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew

The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:33:58 -0800

@tiny crocodile
my best portmanteau word (that I coined): Heathengelical.
(coined in reference to Richard Dawkins, but since come to mean any rabid atheist)

To answer the OP: It's not really anything directly, I don't think. I like ludwig_van's idea of making a portmanteau of portmanteau and malapropism to describe it.

By: argybarg

argybarg — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:35:24 -0800

Douglas Hofstadter is a fan of these particular kinds of errors, and claims to have an index-card file of thousands. He discusses some of his many examples in this video (realvideo link), which is fascinating all the way through.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:35:31 -0800

Hm. Maybe. Those examples are kinda clever sounding but it seems the asker is thinking of occasions where the person has made an unintentional mistake, not a bon mot.

If intentional, I think the simplest word to define some of these is pun.

If unintentional, malapropism will do. I don't know of a specialized word for this kind of mistake.

By: argybarg

argybarg — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:37:32 -0800

And I would doubt that flustrated is actually intentional -- people cough up these sorts of errors mostly as errors (a sort of linguistic short circuit) and not Joycean blends or neologisms (which are intentional).

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:37:52 -0800

Yeah, I immediately thought "neologism."

My favorite (which some nice people credited me with coining): Tragesty.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:51:19 -0800

I would have said "portmanteau," but ludwig_van wins. It's a malamanteau from now on as far as I'm concerned. And as far as examples go, I can't believe nobody's mentioned the most famous malamanteau yet: "misunderestimate."

Incidentally, my wife invented a malamanteau today: "exorberant." It describes something on which you gleefully spend far too much money.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:53:43 -0800

Here is one of my favorite portmanpropisms:
Sarcurious when somebody takes a tone that is both sarcastic and curious, likely because they are defensive about not understanding the previous statement.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:57:18 -0800

Oh, and limeonaire, back in college my circle of friends had a similar word, but taken further: a traumajesty is a situation that is, simultaneously, a tragedy, a travesty and a trauma, but brings all of these conditions to majestic new heights.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:14:12 -0800

A great malamanteau I heard a few months ago was "overflowded".

By: not that girl

not that girl — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:39:44 -0800

Again, not quite it, but something like an eggcorn.

If anybody knows the name of this, I bet the guys at Language Log do.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:05:32 -0800

My favorite is "Ambiviolence," as in, "who should I kill?!"
I'd go with Portmanteau.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:28:26 -0800

Oh, another neologism that hasn't been mentioned yet, but is related is folk/false etymology, when a word or phrase takes on a new pronounciation based on a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of its origin. Popular folk etymologies are woodchuck, blunderbuss, and history. Folk etymology isn't quite the term you're looking for though, because that presupposes that the word has become mainstream and that people have misunderstood its origins. But it's loosely related.

By: po

po — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:48:00 -0800

limeonaire - okay, you may be getting credit for tragesty, but I've got tragitastic!

By: rob511

rob511 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:16:48 -0800

Neither precisely fish (portmanteau) nor fowl (malapropism), the only possible name for such lexical chimeras (e.g., craptacular, fugly, manscaping) is portapropis.

Indeed, like its eponym the movable loo, the rarest offer relief and horror in equal measures.

By: Reggie Digest

Reggie Digest — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:52:40 -0800

Bushism. "Misunderestimate," anyone?