Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2024 April 20

= April 20 =

Emblazoned for emblazed: how common is that?
CNN's Laura Coates says: "A man has emblazoned himself in front of the courthouse". Strictly speaking she should have said "emblazed". How common has that switch become? Is there a name for the process where longer forms (sometimes even incorrect ones) replace shorter ones (for example "notice" for "note", etc.)? 178.51.93.5 (talk) 11:00, 20 April 2024 (UTC)


 * It's a malapropism, "emblazoned" refers to the heraldic blazon, not a blaze of fire. A quick Google search failed to find any similar misuse of the word, although the CNN quote has been widely reported. Alansplodge (talk) 11:10, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I was not asking for the meanings. I knew them: "Strictly speaking she should have said emblazed". My question was about how widespread it had become. Sometimes malapropisms become widespread, through false etymologies, or sometimes (perhaps) the pedantic attraction of longer forms. Incidentally, I wonder if it can nevertheless happen in the other direction: do people really use "emblaze" to mean "emblazoned" (as Wiktionary claims)? 178.51.93.5 (talk) 12:30, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Do people really use "emblaze" at all? I've never encountered it before. Traditionally one immolates oneself, in an act of self-immolation. DuncanHill (talk) 15:05, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I don't think I have ever (in over 60 years of literacy) previously encountered "emblazed", though it has a very brief entry in my 1,690-page Collins dictionary. Emblazoned for me only takes the heraldic meaning (usually "to describe [a coat of] arms in heraldic terminology"), as it's a subject I've long been interested in. It can be used poetically: there is a Thomas Hardy poem 'The Self-Unseeing' that includes the line "Blessings emblazoned that day" – I remember arguing with an English teacher over whether Hardy had used it appropriately; I thought not.
 * I think anyone familiar enough with heraldry to be mentioning the action at all would know that it's "emblazon", not "emblaze". {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 151.227.134.31 (talk) 20:16, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
 * ASP wrote: "A quick Google search failed to find any similar misuse of the word". That was clearly a response to your question about how widespread it had become. Apparently not widespread at all. --Lambiam 21:01, 20 April 2024 (UTC)