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Mar 3, 2018 · Garble (verb) ~ to confuse or mix up (a quotation, story, message, etc.) unintentionally... A garbled message or report contains confused or wrong details, often because it is spoken by someone who is nervous or in a hurry.
Jan 17, 2017 · As it's already been established, we don't confuse names because people look alike; why, then, might we mix up two people of the same or a similar race?
Jan 31, 2024 · Though this might sometimes be embarrassing, a new study suggests mixing up people’s names is completely normal and by no means a sign of bad memory or aging. In fact, it may be...
Jan 16, 2017 · A lot of people mix up children's names or friends' names, but Deffler is a cognitive scientist at Rollins College, in Winter Park, Fla., and she wanted to find out why it happens.
- Spoonerism
- Malapropism
- Other Ways We Play with English Words
A ‘spoonerism’ is when a speaker accidentally mixes up the initial sounds or letters of two words in a phrase. The result is usually humorous.
A ‘malapropism’ is when an incorrect word is used in a sentence that sounds like the correct word but means something completely different.
Blends
One of the easiest ways to get words mixed up is to think of one word while trying to say another. This is how blends end up happening. These mistakes happen regularly in all languages and are usually easy to notice. One famous example in pop culture is from the 2004 film Mean Girls, where the main character Cady gets nervous and accidentally creates the word grool.
Portmanteaus
Sometimes, though, these blends are intentional and become official words of their own. These new words are called portmanteaus and are quite common in English. Don’t believe me? Well, think about the last time you listened to a podcast (iPod + broadcast), breathed in smog (smoke + fog), on met friends for brunch (breakfast + lunch). A relatively new blended word is for a type of food from Louisiana that has increased in popularity in recent years, especially around American Thanksgiving. Do...
In addition to misnaming occurring based on relationship categories, researchers also found that phonetic similarities play a role in getting names mixed up. For example, names that begin or end with similar sounds (e.g. Michael and Mitchell) are more likely to be mixed up with one another.
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Mar 10, 2022 · It is a common experience that, when you share memories with a friend, you can recount some events in much more detail than others, while other times, you mix up memories. But why do our memories change? It is all about the spatial context, says clinical psychologist Vanessa van Ast.
