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By "switch up" I mean that I don't always do it the same way.
"Wayword" is a play on words, since it sounds just like "wayward." Of course it has foundation in Wayword, Inc. and is echoed in the website wayword.org
Dr. Richard Lederer, a former cohost with Martha liked the term "verbivore" for language lovers.
The fact is that idioms are way too fragile to survive such a leap as you suggest. When one modifies an idiom, that brave soul performs delicate surgery. I suspect almost nobody would take a verbivore as a person who “eats his words.†In the expression “to eat one's words,†the possessive (or reflexive) pronoun is de rigueur for this idiom. Even if I were to say, “Boy, he eats words†it may be preplexing, but it would be a stretch to assume humiliation. Further still to say, “She devours words.â€
A verbivore would, likewise, instead be a play on words that indicates someone who derives sustenance and pleasure from language and words, perhaps devouring more than a few books along the way.
Does anyone have any clever turnings of, modifications of, plays upon an idiom that they would care to share?
Points excellently said- the connection perhaps too tenuous, more so for the requirement of the possessive form, and then there is the association of vore to enjoyment rather than to whatever else.
Still, leap is what the mind does, whether simply so prone as all minds are, or driven by the weird needs for jocularity and sarcasm (as also are all minds)-- 'Those vores, don't they know what they're setting themselves up for ....(evil laugh)....'
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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