Malapropism of the Moment – shrinking violet

I love it when people mix up common turns of phrase. This is called Malapropism (thank you Christy). In the spirit of education, I have decided to share some of these nuggets on a recurring basis. 

A malapropism (also called a Dogberryism or acyrologia) is the substitution of a word for a word with a similar sound, in which the resulting phrase makes no sense but often creates a comic effect. It is not the same as an eggcorn, which is a similar substitution in which the new phrase makes sense on some level. Occasionally, a phrase is substituted for the original, e.g. Stan Laurel said "What a terrible cat's after me!" (i.e., catastrophe) in Any Old Port!.

Malapropism of the Moment – shrinking violet


In honor of last night's booty shaking, I've decided to highlight Shrinking Violet.

Shrinking Violet NOT Shrieking Violet

Main Entry: shrinking violet Part of Speech:
noun
Definition: very shy person

Synonyms:

modest violet, mouse, retiring person, shy person, shy thing



Example – There wasn't a shrinking violet in the group. They shook their booty butts like it was going out of style.