More Idiom Blending
Posted by Neal on November 28, 2006
If you liked It’s not rocket surgery!, That’s the way the cookie bounces, under the eight ball and page-burners, then head on over to Noncompositional and check out this post from Russell Lee-Goldman, and this paper by Liz Coppock that he links to.
Ingeborg S. Nordén said
An apparent idiom blend I overheard today: One of the physical therapists at my nursing home told her patient, “We need to get you into ship-shop shape.” To me, that sounds like a cross between “tip-top shape” and “ship-shape” (with some assimilation thrown in for good measure). Then again, my analysis may be the overactive imagination of a language geek!
Neal said
Your analysis sounds about right to me. Thanks for the addition!