Word: malaprop
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...temptation to choose an unfamiliar word for its mere sound is a trap that has caught others besides the Government and Mrs. Malaprop. The prodigious oaths of small boys can scarcely be called profanity: they are nothing more than an innocent Pistolese, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Politicians, publicity agents, and country ministers have vocabularies of similar range and equal disregard for dictionary conventions. One is reminded of the early CRIMSON book-review which said that Professor Norton's notes on the Lowell letters were of course "of infinitesimal value...
...temptation to choose an unfamiliar word for its mere sound is a trap that has caught others besides the Government and Mrs. Malaprop. The prodigious oaths of small boys can scarcely be called profanity: they are nothing more than an innocent Pistolese, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Politicians, publicity agents, and country ministers have vocabularies of similar range and equal disregard for dictionary conventions. One is reminded of the early CRIMSON book-review which said that Professor Norton's notes on the Lowell letters were of course "of infinitesimal value...