Like “does the Pope shit in the woods?” or “that train has sailed?”

Also, what good examples can you think of?

  • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    catachresis

    Ha! Here you are answering the actual question but nobody cares!

    Amazing. I had never seen this word before.

    • wjrii@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Even then, I can’t quite find a single Linguistics term for this phenomenon, where it becomes a thing of its own or even replaces the original. ‘Eggcorn’ and ‘Malaphor’ seem to be pretty decent casual terms.

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Almost thought you’d done one yourself there with this “even then”! But I was thinking of even still (from even so). Which BTW is probably in my top 3 most hated malaphors or catachreses or whatever they are.