For me it is Mondegreen: which is a misheard lyric, word or phrase that becomes popular and gives it new meaning.

  • jaycifer@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    I’m a big fan of contronyms, words with two opposite meanings. I first learned looking for a word to describe the change in “literally” from meaning, well, the literal meaning of something to also the figurative meaning.

    Another good one is dust. You can dust your house to remove dust, but you can also dust a cake with powdered sugar.

    • Crix@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      You would like german. The word “umfahren” can mean to drive around something or it can mean to run something over, depending on how you pronounce it.

    • davidgro@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      I wonder if there’s a word for when a whole phrase has two opposite meanings without one of the words in it being a contronym (or using sarcasm, etc)

      The example that made me think of this is a song lyric:

      And she’s dancing like she’s never danced before!

      There’s the intended meaning of better than ever… But if I were to dance it would also be like I’ve never danced before.

    • isyasad@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      Are they called shelled peanuts because they have their shells? or are they called shelled peanuts because they’ve been shelled, unshelling them? It’s literally ironic…

    • Hugin@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      I’m a fan of cleave which can mean to split in two or to stick together. Each meaning has a different root.

  • Dhar@lemmy.ca
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    17 days ago

    Tmesis, because you can make some unf*ckingbelievable words with it.

  • otacon239@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    Spoonerisms Malaprops are when a character chooses a similar sounding but wrong word for comedic effect.

    • Theo@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 days ago

      I always knew it as transposing the beginning sounds of two words like: fons of tun instead of tons of fun.

    • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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      17 days ago

      Found some spoonerisms for folk that don’t know what it is -

      Three cheers for our queer old dean!" (while giving a toast at a dinner, which Queen Victoria was also attending)[15]

      “Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?” (as opposed to “customary to kiss”)[15]

      “The Lord is a shoving leopard.” (instead of “a loving shepherd”)[15]

      “A blushing crow.” (“crushing blow”)[15]

      “A well-boiled icicle” (“well-oiled bicycle”)[15]

      “You were fighting a liar in the quadrangle.” (“lighting a fire”)[15]

      “Is the bean dizzy?” (“Dean busy”)[15]

      “Someone is occupewing my pie. Please sew me to another sheet.” (“Someone is occupying my pew. Please show me to another seat.”)[15]

      “You have hissed all my mystery lectures. You have tasted a whole worm. Please leave Oxford on the next town drain.” (“You have missed all my history lectures. You have wasted a whole term. Please leave Oxford on the next down train.”)[15]

    • Theo@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 days ago

      No, he calls it an Emordnilap. I did see it but I knew of Semordnilaps for awhile now. I DO like Micheal Steven’s take on all of his linguistic subjects. Dude is a genius educator.

      Edit: lmao I chuckled at your username.

  • Theo@lemmy.worldOP
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    18 days ago

    Another is Tautonyms: a word made of two of the same words eg. Yo-yo or AT-AT.

  • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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    15 days ago

    I like the term homological/autological and it’s opposite, heterological (words that describe themselves, and words that describe the opposite of themselves, respectively)

    And portmanteau.