Meghan McCain, daughter of a former presidential candidate and hapless political commentator, pulled off a marvelous malapropism on MSBC. The Obamas, she said, deserve “an emoticon of privacy.” OMG! They absolutely do!!!
malapropism (MAL-a-prop-ism) or acyrologia(a-keer-o-LO-gia), the fortunate mix-up.
The malapropism is an eponym named for the addlebrained literary character, Mrs. Malaprop. But credit the Greeks for coining the figure two and a half millennia before. The acyrologia (“unauthorized speech”) swaps a word with a like-sounding but fortuitously wrong substitute.
The ideal screwup achieves a higher addled wisdom. Props to you, Ms. M! But it’lll take you many years to achieve the addled wisdom-ness of Yogi Berra.