Word Play: When figures of speech collide

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, March 14th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

It’s that time of year again … when we start accepting applications to our annual WORLD Journalism Institute program for college students and recent graduates interested in journalism careers.

EICHER: If you have a young person in your home interested in journalism this is a great opportunity to see what it’s like … two weeks to learn first hand from our reporters and editors how we approach covering the news professionally … how we do sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth.

Thanks to generous donors, we offer this program without charge to the students.

BROWN: Without charge, but not without challenge. This is a competitive program and it’s not easy to get in. Once you do get in … it just gets harder. But … no pain, no gain.

The course runs from May 15th through May 31st on the campus of Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa … we always have more applicants than we have classroom space … and the deadline is just two weeks away. Friday, March 28th. The process does require a bit of writing, so don’t put it off … apply today at WJI.WORLD. We’ll also put a link in today’s transcript and show notes as well.

EICHER: So grab the bull by the horns—or better yet, in the spirit of Word Play this month, grab the headline by the deadline! Here’s George Grant.

GEORGE GRANT: A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that compares one thing to another for rhetorical effect. Metaphors provide literary descriptions, can serve as figures of speech, and sometimes end up as tropes, idioms, and cliches.

A malaphor is a blend of malapropism and metaphor. It is when we use two or more unrelated metaphors into a single muddled, nonsensical, or garbled expression—usually with comical effect. Formally known as a catachresis or eggcorn, a malaphor is what we more commonly call a mixed idiom or a mixed metaphor. Examples abound:

“Every cloud has a silver spoon in its mouth;” “He was watching me like I was a hawk;” “It’s like looking for a needle in a hayride;” “It’s time to step up to the plate and lay your cards on the table;” “That train has left the frying pan;” “Take the moral high horse;” and “When the going gets tough, the early bird gets the worm.”

Some malaphors almost sound right: “We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it;” “You can’t teach an old leopard new spots;” “You could have knocked me over with a fender;” “Get all your ducks on the same page;” “Burn the midnight oil from both ends;” “The price of eggs has become a hot potato;” and, “He has a heart as big as gold.” A high school coach solemnly charged his team to “Line up in a circle.”

The baseball legend, Yori Berra, was famously inclined to utter an entire catalog of malaphors: “Baseball is ninety percent half mental;” “Pair ‘em up in threes;” “I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia—let them walk to school like I did;” “When you come to a fork in the road, take it;” “A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore;” And, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

Even rhetorically adept politicians can sometimes lapse into malaphors. Barack Obama famously quipped, “He is green behind the ears when it comes to foreign policy.” Senator Alan Simpson decried the lack of a budget deal between Congress and the President saying, “They’ve dug their won snare.” Tennessee State Senator Stacey Campfield quipped that a common sense proposal was “hardly rocket surgery.” Alabama State Representative John Rogers, declared, “We’ll be here until the cows come home from Capistrano.” Jean Quan, the mayor of Oakland, modestly declared, “I don’t want to toot my own hat.”

Sometimes malaphors are deliberately used for rhetorical effect: Incumbent Texas Governor Ann Richards declared that her opponent, George W. Bush, was “born with a silver foot in his mouth.” And Ronald Reagan declared that House Speaker Tip O’Neil was “a wolf in cheap clothing.”

It is always wise to keep an eye on potential malaphors with an ear to the ground and a finger on the pulse of your audience. Do you follow where I’m coming from?

I’m George Grant.

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