Neologisms 1

New new coinages added here.

(And more here, here, here and here):

"Getting In Touch With Your Feelings" is another quilted-sampler-type cliché that ends up masking something ghastly, deep and real, it turns out. It starts to turn out that the vapider the AA cliché, the sharper the canines of the real truth it covers. David Foster Wallace

Varieties of stews, which feather into curries. Nick Dunlavy

Brecht’s sledgehammer moralising Obs Apr 29 2007

the cold, hard glitter-glue of the Irish Sea. Caitlin Moran, Times April 2011

Over the years I've taught here, I've seen student numbers creep up, while the staffing has decreased. I can't take a day off sick. I pedal harder and harder, but there will be a time when the chain will break. Chelsea Art School tutor on progressive cuts, April 11, 2011

You might even tiptoe over £40,000. Graham Barton on Homes under the Hammer.

a dockside scheme, The Waterfront, promised to roll out the more depressing form of marina dromeage, only to be indefinitely shelved a year ago… @OwenHatherley on “dockside regeneration” in Barrow in Furness.

Blair hat – winged or barrel roof on top of reclad, regenerated 60s tower block

Brazilifications of council estates @OwenHatherley

Free Jazz - like a bison with TB being fed slowly through a mangle. And not in a good way. @RupertGoodwins

glove-puppet candidates

God’s building site Gryff Rhys Jones on the Cuilins

Groundscraper (opposite of skyscraper) @KieranLong Jan 2011

It’s a fascinating area, full of elephant traps. Roger Nuttall on racism and offensive language

It's all run together in my memory like a wet watercolour. Sasha Lubetkin

Millions of ordinary Joes flaked away (from the Saturday Evening Post). Robert Peston Guardian Jan 3 2011

over-sharing

that ghastly fraying mantis, Lara Flynn Boyle Guardian 2/3/11

The alliance between Suze and me didn’t turn out exactly to be a holiday in the woods,” Bob Dylan later conceded. “Eventually fate flagged it down... She took one turn in the road; I took another.”

the nosebleed section (of stadium seating – the highest you can get)

The wallpaper is distancing itself from this flat. Lucy Alexander on Homes under the Hammer

Mixed Metaphors Part Three

Avoid mixing fire and water metaphors - floods and waves can’t be sparked.

It was gutted by a fire that left three millions of damage in its wake (Try “a fire caused three million of damage”.)

Today Morrissey reignites a simmering row… Alexandra Topping Guardian Sep 4 10 He could bring it back to the boil if it’s simmering, but not ignite it unless it’s petrol.

a turning point in attacking the fungus of "boiler-plate" (The UK Corporate Governance Code)
Sebastian Coe, who has won gold medals in the past for running, now wins another for this line in his platitude-rich autobiography The Winning Mind: “There are times when there is a need to dig deep and find another gear – while never losing sight of the bigger picture.” (via Lucy Kellaway in the FT Jan 2011)

a discrepancy that rams home the continuing gulf between the City and the rest of us (emphasises)

Add another bow to his string Guardian Oct 2 10 (Bows have strings, not the other way round.)

bone china rolls hot off the kiln (The Times gets over-excited about Wills and Kate souvenirs Nov 18 10)

combing for talent with a fine toothbrush (You go through things with a fine-toothed comb.)

Confine “sear” to things that can sear, eg “searing heat”. “Searing hunger” is nonsensical.

Doubt was sown = the seeds of doubt were sown, or doubts were raised

heaped for steeped This place is heaped in tradition. BBC news Oct 9 10

If such a huge link in the corrupt chain as the city of Moscow is tinkered with, the entire state edifice might come tumbling down. (It’s a chain with one huge link. How do you tinker with a link? If your tinkering breaks the link, the chain will break – was it holding up the edifice? gazeta.ru)

It’s good to see Gyllenhaal throwing away “that dark cloud of anxiety and moral seriousness that usually hangs over him like a halo”. Philip French, Obs Jan 2011

Riders tilt at nude rollercoaster record (How about “try for”?)

silver bullet for magic bullet (a silver bullet kills a werewolf; Salvarsan was the “magic bullet” that killed the organisms that cause syphilis)

The grass roots have got plenty to chew over. BBC Breakfast October 5, 2010

the trappings of power are thin Andrew Grice Indy March 2011 (Does he think it means something like “wrappings”?)

They've got other things on their mind, like paying for their children's college fees, and running their family's purse strings. BBC Oct 22 10 (You keep a tight hold on the purse strings because they hold the purse shut. You run your family finances.)

will move heaven and high water to... (Combines “will move heaven and earth” with “come Hell or high water”.)

More here at jimcarlton.com

More mixed metaphors and garbled cliches here, here, here and here.