Introducing Obscure Words

The word "malapropism" (and its earlier variant "malaprop") comes from a character named "Mrs. Malaprop" in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals.[2] Mrs. Malaprop frequently misspeaks (to comic effect) by using words which don't have the meaning that she intends but which sound similar to words that do. Sheridan presumably chose her name in humorous reference to the word malapropos, an adjective or adverb meaning "inappropriate" or "inappropriately", derived from the French phrase mal à propos (literally "poorly placed").

My memory was telling me that malaprop has a Latin root, so I took the Latin for to spell (horulae, according to Google translate) and created a new word, to mean "poorly spelt" in the same vein.

A bit like dyslexia/dysnumeria; although, on checking, I find that dyslexia with numbers is dyscalculia! Although, on checking further, I see that dysnumeria is a tendency to transpose numbers - sort of misspelling a number - whereas dyscalculia is a difficulty in learning/understanding arithmetic, so dysnumeria is more closely correlated to dyslexia. God knows what it's called, but the correlated condition to dyscalculia would be a difficulty in learning/understanding grammar.

 

And then there are eggcorns

 

Wow! Nice stuff

What is "extraordinary" then? It means the opposite of what it logically looks like ... well, it is actually nonsensical more than a reverswd meaning. I think "sick" is clear example of reversed meaning.

 

"Awful" used to mean "full of (inspiring) awe, similar to the current meaning of "awesome."

On the other hand, @Wreybies knows that "bitchin(g)" isn't just a negatively gendered word for complaining:

 

Meanwhile, Iain never feared arrest because his dad was the mayor.

 

I guess you don't know the term for that or there isn't one

 

Well, awe is not a singularly pleasant experience. It's exciting, it's intense, it's impressive, and it has a hint of uncertainty & fear

According to google, it's reverential respect with fear and/or wonder

It's that feeling that overwhelms one in the presence of God or the Sublime or something of that nature

Both awful & awesome are divorced of the original intensity & each only got half the sensation in the separation~

 

Semantic shift doing what it does.