What is this form of 'figure of speech' called?

Question

I'm sure there is a term for the case where an (often) archaic term is corrupted or misspelled/misused somehow to form a new phrase, which is then adopted as common slang. As a very basic example, things like "less" being commonly used where "fewer" should be used, and "made of" in place of "made with". There are whole clichés and phrases based on this principle though. What is it known as?

It is a specific term for exactly what I've described. I would say that if you know the term, you'll know it's this. If what you think this is is quite vague, it's probably not it. (Very very long shot, I've a feeling the word 'egg' is in the term... but it may not be at all. Just thought I'd throw this in in case it's right!)

Answer 1

Do you perhaps mean folk etymology? For example, some people think that asparagus was originally called "sparrow grass", and gradually got shortened to the single word. It's a kind of urban legend of word origins.

Or could you be thinking of malapropism? A malapropism is a substitution of a wrong word that sounds like the right one, like "to coin a praise" (instead of "to coin a phrase"). It's named for Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the 1775 play "The Rivals", who constantly spouted malapropisms. One of hers was, "He is the very pineapple of politeness", by which she meant pinnacle.

Answer 2

Could it be idiom - meaning a group of words established by usage and having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. e.g. "Over the moon," "See the light."

Or maybe colloquial - being an adjective belonging to or proper to ordinary or familiar language, not formal or literary.

Hope this is of some use.

Answer 3

Technically its known as bad English.

Answer 4

Also known as, people who can't speak english properly...

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change