Metathesis/Catachresis…

…or simple spelling mistakes

“I am completely allergenic to tomatoes”
(translation: I don’t like tomatoes one little bit!)

A source of unending humour in our household are the brave attempts made by me, the Bug and sometimes even Daddy, to use clever words. Mostly it is not even a conscious effort, merely a subconscious mistake. Whatever, it often results in fits of glee, and sometimes even becomes a stock word in our repertoire.

For example, Mummy is so practised in using the Bug’s definition for adding colour to a picture that she is now physically incapable of referring to it as anything other than coroulling. This is referred to as metathesis.

Similarly, when I was 2 I always needed a ‘towow’ to dry myself after a bath or ‘showow’. This too has stuck and become a regular word in the Actually Mummy family dictionary.

Catachresis is the use of an incorrect word which sounds similar to the right one. For example, ‘I prefer to remain anomalous’. This I do on a regular basis. It makes for some interesting situations, as you can imagine. So Mummy has the embarrassing habit of including these little expressions in my posts. Not only that, but in order to deflect attention from herself, she highlights my mistakes, just so no-one thinks it was her. Self-righteous mare!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy tagging along on my linguistic journal to self-improvement. If you spot my mistakes feel free to point them out to me – everyone else around here does. And if I get away with it maybe there will be a whole new Actually Mummy language one day!

Here are some examples you will find in my blog:

• I digest = I digress
• I am irreverent, not irrelevant!
• prostrations = protestations
• parachutalia = paraphernalia
• synthesised = sympathised
• metamorphical = metaphorical
• memorised = mesmerised
• consecutively = consequently
• elasticky = alacrity (yes, believe it or not, I have said it – in context!)
• autonomously = anonymously
• expatriating = exasperating

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