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Formulaic language (previously known as automatic speech or embolalia) is a linguistic term for verbal expressions that are fixed in form, often non-literal in meaning with attitudinal nuances, and closely related to communicative-pragmatic context. [1]
Pardon my French" or "Excuse my French" is a common English language phrase for asking for excuse for one's profanity by the humorous assertion that the swear words were from the French language. It plays on the stereotype of Gallic sophistication, but can be used ironically.
A mondegreen (/ ˈ m ɒ n d ɪ ˌ ɡ r iː n / ⓘ) is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. [1] Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense.
Most of the pairs listed below are closely related: for example, "absent" as a noun meaning "missing", and as a verb meaning "to make oneself missing". There are also many cases in which homographs are of an entirely separate origin, or whose meanings have diverged to the point that present-day speakers have little historical understanding: for ...
"Excuse Me", a comedy routine by Steve Martin that appeared on his 1977 album Let's Get Small and later became a catchphrase "Excuse me, princess!", a catchphrase of the video game character Link ( The Legend of Zelda )
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling, situation or reaction. [1] [2] It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations (ouch!, wow!
The earliest confirmed publication is the 1866 Dion Boucicault play Flying Scud, [2] in which a character knowingly breezes past a difficult situation saying, "Excuse me Mr. Quail, I can't stop; I've got to see a man about a dog." [3] [4] Time magazine observed that the phrase was the play's "claim to fame". [5]
A aggravate – Some have argued that this word should not be used in the sense of "to annoy" or "to oppress", but only to mean "to make worse". According to AHDI, the use of "aggravate" as "annoy" occurs in English as far back as the 17th century. In Latin, from which the word was borrowed, both meanings were used. Sixty-eight percent of AHD4's usage panel approves of its use in "It's the ...