You know the saying (or maybe you don’t, it might be somewhat passée now) – ‘you can’t see the wood for the trees‘? Well, I heard the most delightful malapropism for the saying the other day. I guess what my companion said made much more sense, especially these urban days, when people might not be wandering around in a wood as often as in former times. This was what my companion said “sometimes you can’t see the sky through the leaves”, and that summoned such a powerful image, so vivid, I felt as if I was actually beneath a tree and looking up! Not only was it very visual, it had such a clear meaning – I knew exactly what they were getting at and it summed up exactly what we were talking about.
Although I’m particular about language, I do love a good spoonerism or an inventive mixed metaphor, a friend of mine who is actually a writer once said to me that they were “sailing by the skin of their teeth” – I knew exactly what they meant but again, the image of them splicing the mainbrace or whatever with their teeth was amusing. They are actually very creative when it comes to mixing metaphors or sabotaging similes:
- keep the oils wheeled
- like casting stones upon water
- I thumb my finger at you
- a disembowelled voice
The thing is with this sort of language mangling, I’m sure we all do it from time to time without realising, I wonder if someone somewhere is even now chuckling over something nonsensical I said without realising it!
Lois Elsden 