What is a "malaphor"?

Malaphor is a word that first appeared on August 6th, 1976 in a Washington Post op-ed piece by Lawrence Harrison according to malaphors.com. It is still finding its way into common use and apparently not (yet) found in standard English dictionaries. It denotes the (usually unintentional) mixing of idioms to produce a nonsensical statement that is nonetheless quite effective at conveying the intended message, because the idioms inadvertently mixed up usually have the same meaning, which is not lost in the mixing. The long-standing, accepted term for this phenomenon is "mixing of metaphors."

malaphor noun [plural malaphors] (rare neologism) An idiom blend: an error in which two similar figures of speech are merged, producing a nonsensical result.

Examples include "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it" (from "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it" and "burn one's bridges"), "stir the apple cart" (from "upset the apple cart" and "stir the pot") and "Make like a bread truck and split" (from "Make like a bread truck and haul buns" and "Make like a banana and split.")

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This excerpt is from Wiktionary's Malaphor Entry, which is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 terms.

An example of an intentional malaphor is "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it" which was used in the song “Burn That Bridge” by musician Jimmy Buffett.

Some hilarious new expressions can be served up by such accidental or intentional mixing -- it keeps the language vibrant and brings a smile to the dourest face. More information and examples can be found at the following websites:

• The Malaphors.com blog

• The Oxford Dictionaries blog article What are malaphors? It's not rocket surgery!

• The ThoughtCo. blog article What Are Malaphors?

Here are some possible examples of future use:

I like metaphors, misappropisms and malaphors.

Don't mix your malaphors, the teacher said.

What is your favorite malaphor?

I know that it's always better to use the correct metaphors and idioms, but read malaphors and keep smiling!