Unparalleled misalignments are pairs of phrases in which the words in one phrase are each synonyms of the words in the other, but the phrases themselves mean different things. For example, the phrase blanket statement can be paired with cover story. Another example is dad bod and father figure. Or how about drink menu and spirit guide? Coming up with these is a fun mental exercise! Ricki Heicklen has many more at her website. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Unparalleled Misalignments”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. I came across an intriguing type of wordplay the other day.
It involves unrelated pairs of words and phrases. Now, each half of the pair makes sense on its own, but what makes them a pair is that the words in one pair are synonyms of the words in the other.
Let me give you an example. Take the term blanket statement. Now, that makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
Right. Blanket statement. This is something that kind of covers all options or situations.
Interesting that you mentioned the word cover because you compare the term blanket statement with cover story.
Oh, so although on the surface the words can be synonyms, the idiomatic expressions taken as a whole are not synonyms.
Exactly.
So cover story is a kind of a lie that you tell somebody in order to reveal your true intentions.
But a blanket statement’s not that.
Right.
They mean different things, but they’re paralleled.
In fact, some people call these unparalleled misalignments.
Let me give you another one.
Dad bod can be paired with father figure.
And there’s no law saying a father figure can’t have a dad bod, but idiomatically, they’re not the same thing.
That’s right.
And there’s a huge collection of these on the website of Ricky Heichelin. That’s H-E-I-C-K-L-E-N.
And we’ll link to it from our website.
But these things really make you think.
I’ll give you another one.
Drink menu could be paired with spirit guide.
Oh, wow.
I love that.
Drink menu and spirit guide.
Not the same thing idiomatically.
But on the surface, they could be.
They could be.
Or here’s another, bird watcher and eagle scout.
You know, scout becomes a verb there.
Right, right.
This is an amazing list, Martha.
It really is.
And it really made my brain work hard.
You know, it’s like doing a cryptic crossword or something.
Yeah, we’ll link to this on our website so you can enjoy it too.
And if you’ve got your own unparalleled misalignments, send them right on.
And we’ll share them with the world.
That email address is words@waywordradio.org.
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