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A word salad is a "confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases", [1] most often used to describe a symptom of a neurological or mental disorder. The name schizophasia is used in particular to describe the confused language that may be evident in schizophrenia. [2]
These words are sometimes confused; venal means "corrupt", "able to be bribed", or "for sale"; venial means "pardonable, not serious". [46] [119] Standard: According to Catholic doctrine, eating meat on a Friday during Lent is a venial sin, but murder is a mortal sin. Standard: All ages have examples of venal politicians.
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 ...
While most malapropism examples, and often the best funny malapropisms, are unintentional errors, a malapropism can technically be a deliberate misuse of a word, too. Here are our favorite ...
For example, "a bull in a candy store" can be formed from the root expressions "a bull in a China shop" and "a kid in a candy store". The latter expression paints a picture of someone ("a kid") who is extraordinarily happy and excited, whereas the former brings to mind the image of a person ("a bull") who is extremely clumsy, indelicate, not ...
A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. [1] Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the name no longer suitably applies.
Not to be confused with "packie", used in some areas of the US such as New England, short for "package store", meaning "liquor store". [132] [unreliable source?] [133] [unreliable source?] As with some other terms (cf. fanny pack), this is a case where innocent US use of a term may be unintentionally offensive in the UK. panda car (informal ...
A non sequitur (English: / n ɒ n ˈ s ɛ k w ɪ t ər / non SEK-wit-ər, Classical Latin: [noːn ˈsɛkᶣɪtʊr]; "[it] does not follow") is a conversational literary device, often used for comedic purposes.