MALAPROPISMS XXX

Source: Anguished English

Richard Lederer 

A malapropism is the mistaken use of one word in place of another similar sounding one. Though the mistake is unintentional, the result may be funny. For example, this entry in a cookbook: Every recipe is followed by an antidote from the contributor. The word they meant to say was anecdote - a little story about the recipe. Antidote is a remedy for poison. Can you identify the malapropism in each sentence below and give the correct word?

1. We sold our house and moved into a pandemonium.

2. The food in that restaurant is abdominal.

3. The monster under you bed is a fragment of your imagination.

4. The confident mayor exhumed confidence as the polls closed.

5. The pleasures of youth do not compare to those of adultery.

6. He suffered from unrequired love.

7. The salary is commiserate with experience.

8. I've been diagnosed with prostrate cancer.

9. Please make a decision! I can't hang around in libido forever!

10. The specialist charged exuberant fees.

11. Don't tell them who sent it. I want to remain magnanimous.

12. She's been dwindling in the stock market.

13. I didn't tell them who I was. I used a facetious name.

14. Those hills have been worn down by eroticism.

Answers:

 

1. Pandemonium - condominium

2. Abdominal - abominable

3. Fragment - figment

4. Exhumed - exuded

5. Adultery - Adulthood

6. Unrequired - unrequited

7. Commiserate - commensurate

8. Prostrate - prostate

9. Libido - limbo

10. Exuberant - exhorbitant

11. Magnanimous - anonymous

12. Dwindling - dabling

13. Facetious - fictitious

14. Eroticism - erosion