Figure of Speech

[sylvius]

MALAPROPISM. From the combination of 'malady', meaning 'sick', and 'apropos', 'to the right purpose'; this figure-of-speech means wrong thinking; like in ludicrous foolishness that transposes or confuses one word or expression for another or the outrageous bluff of Solomon to 'cut the baby in half'! We speak of the "tail wagging the dog" when a tiny something affects a larger something, or when the solution comes from an unexpected quarter.

"Are you serious?" "No, Sirius is the dog star". Surely you jest! "I'm not Shirley; I'm jest Ernest as I can be."

Comedians make their living with this figure; using wacky and idiotic plays-on-words, so it's a figure that's heavily into humor, despite its inherent falseness. Jesus said "Of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks", Mt12:34, and "By their fruits you shall know them", Mt7:20, so it's the motivation of the speaker which determines whether the malapropism is refudiate sick-yuk, or is healthy humor. You may have a general feeling for the meaning of "fruit", but when you arrive at Galatians 5:22 in the Epistles, you'll learn about nine specific fruit that come from the same spirit.

A king is a ruler because that's a foot long, and a foot goes into a shoe, which is why you shoo a fly, and when you fly you're up in the air, and an heir is one who has a fortune, and with one of those you can charge all you like, and a since a king is the one who's in charge; that's why a king is a ruler! This is foolish and cockeyed logic for sure, like putting lipstick on a pig!

This figure of malapropism, with its aspect of sick-thinking, reminds me of the story that's told about a church that split up over the question of whether or not Adam and Eve had navels! Sure it's an intriguing thought (like "which came first; the chicken or the egg?"), but maybe we shouldn't open that 'can of worms', and "that dog won't hunt", and grownups ought to know better than to make mountains out of molehills, or grand-canyons from belly-buttons.

"The foolishness of God is wiser than men", and "God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise", 1Cor1:25. Is He allowed to round off numbers, or to change from days to years, like in a Day for 1,000 yrs.? It may be funny-malapropos to confuse one word with another; but it's a downright shame for The Word of God to be confused with the doctrines and ideas of long robed or long haired men.

See this:
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...-The-hermeneut

"The hermeneut", Genesis 42:23,

They did not know that Joseph understood, for the interpreter was between them.

Etc.

with a great comment by Rabbiner Hirsch, that needs a Dolmetscher ( Not a Tollmetscher)