Some call them crash blossoms, those funny turns of phrase that copy editors may or may not intend, like “Milk Drinkers Turn To Powder.” More about crash blossoms in this article in Good by Mark Peters. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Crash Blossoms”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Don’t you love headlines that make you do a double take? You know, like McDonald’s fries the Holy Grail for farmers? Or how about this one? Genetic engineering splits scientists. We do need two Stephen Hawking. Time travel is just one clone away.
Well, recently, language columnist Mark Peters had a piece in the magazine called Good, in which he talked about a term that linguists and copy editors are increasingly using for these kinds of bloopers. They call these verbal collisions crash blossoms. And I love this expression. Grant, when I think of crash blossoms, I picture words that are crashing together and a whole new idea blossoming out of that. Like, for example, child stool, great for use in garden. I believe in composting.
But crash blossom comes from a crash blossom itself, right? There was a headline that used that pair of words?
Right. Sadly, it was about a violinist whose career flourished after surviving a plane crash, and the headline was, Violinist Linked to J.A.L. Crash Blossoms.
Oh. Some of these are funny and a little bit lewd, like, big busts indicate drug war working.
Oh, no. And subtle ones like, Farmer Bill Dies in House.
Oh, no. Some legislation wasn’t passed. It wasn’t a man named Farmer Bill who died.
Oh, thank goodness. And sometimes, you know, you think that the copy editor or headline writer was up to something and they knew what they were doing. Lingerie shipment hijacked. Thief gives police the slip.
Now, Grant, how often do you think copy editors are just having fun?
Every day.
Really? Every day. You think that’s a perk of the job? Copy editors, it depends on your institution, your newspaper or magazine. Sometimes the headlines are written by different staff members, but generally the copy editors have a role in that, right?
It’s a thankless job. You take whatever pleasure you can find, right? Well, you also have the limitations of headline ease, you know?
Right. So this is why they’re constantly verbing nouns and nouning verbs. And so you get the word like fries that can do two jobs, right?
Yeah, exactly. Well, I’d love to hear other people’s favorite crash blossoms. So give us a call. The number is 1-877-929-9673. That’s 1-877-W-A-Y-W-O-R-D. Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
