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For me it is Mondegreen: which is a misheard lyric, word or phrase that becomes popular and gives it new meaning.

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[-] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 59 points 2 weeks ago

Malaphors are my faves. Like saying "we'll burn that bridge when we get to it*

[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

My favorite lately: "you don't want to get two birds stoned at once"

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[-] Classy@sh.itjust.works 38 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I enjoy "portmanteau": the combination of two words to get a new meaning."Brunch"

Malapropisms are great, too. "He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious"

[-] SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Part of what makes Klein’s Don’t Starve game so quirky and fun is the rampant use of creatures that are portmanteau’s of other creatures.

Beefalo

Deerclops

Koalephant

Catcoon

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[-] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

That's a new one. I didn't know about malapropisms. There is a daily wordle style game I cannot think of what it is called for portmanteaus.

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[-] ch00f@lemmy.world 36 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

“Aptronym”

When someone’s name is fitting for their occupation.

Tiger Woods (like the gold club)

Usain Bolt (who bolts quickly)

Etc.

Also whatever this is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

[-] sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 weeks ago

My favorites are Dr. Richard Chopp (a urologist) and Les McBurney (a fire chief).

[-] EpeeGnome@lemm.ee 6 points 2 weeks ago

I am going to pretend that he has a cousin named Moore McBurney, the notorious arsonist.

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[-] Cuberoot@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Armand Hammer's fortune came from petroleum, not baking soda, but he supposedly bought a stake in Church & Dwight just for the pun of it.

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[-] jaycifer@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago

I’m a big fan of contronyms, words with two opposite meanings. I first learned looking for a word to describe the change in “literally” from meaning, well, the literal meaning of something to also the figurative meaning.

Another good one is dust. You can dust your house to remove dust, but you can also dust a cake with powdered sugar.

[-] Crix@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

You would like german. The word "umfahren" can mean to drive around something or it can mean to run something over, depending on how you pronounce it.

[-] davidgro@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I wonder if there's a word for when a whole phrase has two opposite meanings without one of the words in it being a contronym (or using sarcasm, etc)

The example that made me think of this is a song lyric:

And she's dancing like she's never danced before!

There's the intended meaning of better than ever... But if I were to dance it would also be like I've never danced before.

[-] fool@programming.dev 5 points 2 weeks ago

Also known as autoantonym (antonym of itself). e.g. "Because of my oversight, my project is finished."

Did the person make an oversight, i.e. a mistake, and now his project is done for?

Or did the person's well-adjusted oversight, i.e. management, help complete his project on time?

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[-] fool@programming.dev 29 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Antimetaboles, maybe? It's when you switch two words for poetic effect.

When the goin' gets tough, the tough get goin'!

It's fun to sound pseudo-poetic by trying to make one on the fly. Easier than a limerick

In this world, you either have bot aim, or you have aimbot.

It's better to cum in the sink than to sink in the cum

~Shakespeare~ ~was~ ~lowbrow~ ~too,~ ~ok~

[-] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Lol Shakespeare the OG rapper:

From Family Guy: I'm not saying she's a gold digger, but she ain't messing with any.....who isn't she messing with?

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[-] davidgro@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

The Sphinx : Your temper is very quick, my friend. But until you learn to master your rage...

Mr. Furious : ...your rage will become your master? That's what you were going to say. Right? Right?

The Sphinx : Not necessarily.

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[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 23 points 2 weeks ago

Irony

like Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia being the fear of long words

[-] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

And lisp having an S in it or rhotacism having an R. Ironic: yes, cruel: definitely!

[-] BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago

Totally! Like aipohphobia is the fear of palindromes.

[-] DampSquid@feddit.uk 8 points 2 weeks ago
[-] BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago

Don’t you dare scaring me like that ever again!

[-] MushroomsEverywhere@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

I love that the term glottal stop is a perfect example of a glottal stop.

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[-] ajoebyanyothername@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago

I'm a fan of semantic satiation, wherein you hear something so much that it doesn't sound like a real word anymore.

[-] fool@programming.dev 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Say it with me, boys:

Squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel squirrel.

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[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 22 points 2 weeks ago

Eggcorn, when someone mistakenly modifies a word by misinterpreting a part of it. Example: Eggcorn (acorn).

[-] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I once did something sort of like this.

Back in the early days of the internet, I was on IRC playing trivia. Often people would talk about wag or wagging. I didn't know exactly what it meant but I'm pretty good at inferring from context clues... usually.

They asked a Star Wars question and of course I knew it right away. I realized in the moment I was practically wagging in anticipation of being correct and I announced it as my first wag.

Of course, wag stood for wild ass guess so I had gotten the meaning completely backward. It still haunts me to this day, some 35+ years later, even though no one but me probably knew about my mistake.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 6 points 2 weeks ago

My condolences.

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[-] Dhar@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 weeks ago

Tmesis, because you can make some unf*ckingbelievable words with it.

[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

In linguistics this is called expletive infixation. It's a good example of the inherent grammar of language that we are never directly taught but know anyway. For example, we know fanfuckingtastic is correct but fantafuckingstic is wrong.

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[-] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

I had an Austin Powers shirt with lines similar to: 'fanf*ckingtastic' all over it , lol. There is a word for everything.

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[-] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 14 points 2 weeks ago

"pseudo-anglicisms". good examples are eye-shopping, relooking, face control and salaryman.

their origins are interesting and colorful.

[-] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Cool. Similar to anglicism. also, cognate comes to mind here since talking about words between languages.

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[-] otacon239@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

~~Spoonerisms~~ Malaprops are when a character chooses a similar sounding but wrong word for comedic effect.

[-] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

I always knew it as transposing the beginning sounds of two words like: fons of tun instead of tons of fun.

[-] otacon239@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

You’re right. I’m thinking of malaprop.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

“She wrote me one of those John Deere letters…”

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[-] ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Looks like someone also watched that Vsauce video 🙃

[-] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

No, he calls it an Emordnilap. I did see it but I knew of Semordnilaps for awhile now. I DO like Micheal Steven's take on all of his linguistic subjects. Dude is a genius educator.

Edit: lmao I chuckled at your username.

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[-] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

Another is Tautonyms: a word made of two of the same words eg. Yo-yo or AT-AT.

[-] XEAL@lemm.ee 6 points 2 weeks ago

You V-Sauce's video, didn't you?

[-] Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

I did, op almost definitely did!

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[-] dgbbad@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 weeks ago
[-] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

After my alarm went off, I turned it off. (Off with 66 definitions, one is bound to be an antonym).

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this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
141 points (94.3% liked)

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