Lately I read a couple of books that had truly laughable malapropisms.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a malapropism is “the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context.”
A common malapropism is “if you think [that], then you have another thing coming.” The correct idiom is if you think [that], then you have another think coming. Our minds automatically correct “think” to “thing” because think isn’t normally used as a noun. However, the idiom treats think as a noun and means that if you have a particular thought, idea, or assumption, then it’s incorrect and you should rethink or reconsider. Here’s an example: If you think I’m going to ride that horse, then you have another think coming.
In both of the unintentionally laughter-inducing malapropisms I encountered, the words were used correctly as far as grammar is concerned: one an adjective and the other a noun. Spell-check wouldn’t have caught either one because neither is misspelled. Editing software, assuming the authors used such software, didn’t catch errors because the words were used correctly according to the conventions of English grammar.
However, software does not understand nuance or context.
The first unintentionally humorous malapropism concerns the use of exuberant. Exuberant means “joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic.” Twice the author referred to “exuberant costs.” While cost increases may indeed be unrestrained, they’re not necessarily joyous or enthusiastic. What the author means was exorbitant, “exceeding the customary or appropriate limits in intensity, quality, amount, or size.”
The second one concerns the use of gesticulation, which means “an expressive gesture made in showing strong feeling or in enforcing an argument.” In the story, the protagonists, both biomedical researchers, discuss chimpanzees which have a—to use the correct word—period of gestation approximating human gestation. Gee, I really wouldn’t want to gesticulate for months on end.
Having an extensive vocabulary is good, but you should know what the words you use mean as well as how to use them effectively. An editor does more than correct misspelled words and correct grammar and punctuation errors. An editor make sure the words you used don’t have unintended consequences.