NationStates Jolt Archive

Despite some searching, I cannot find the answer to this, so I turn to tEH EduKated amongst NSG for an answer (yes, that is desparation, isn't it).

What is the term or name for when somebody paraphrases a well known adage, or quote to make a point.

Example 1 - "She cut off her nose to spite her race"

Example 2 - "I need a hamster like a fish needs a bicycle"

Despite some searching, I cannot find the answer to this, so I turn to tEH EduKated amongst NSG for an answer (yes, that is desparation, isn't it).

What is the term or name for when somebody paraphrases a well known adage, or quote to make a point.

Example 1 - "She cut off her nose to spite her race"

Example 2 - "I need a hamster like a fish needs a bicycle"

I think Example one should be "She cut off her nose to spite her face.

Cliche? Idiom?

What is the term or name for when somebody paraphrases a well known adage, or quote to make a point.
clueless?
unimaginative?
a twat?

Platitude.

I think Example one should be "She cut off her nose to spite her face.

No, it was an adaptation of "She cut off her nose to spite her face"

Even Roseanne, the closest thing American television has had to a militant feminist, worries about her weight and indulges in rhinoplasty (reminding me of the remark the half-Jewish Dorothy Parker made when Fannie Brice had her nose-job: “She cut off her nose to spite her race.”
http://www.cvnc.org/reviews/2005/112005/EEnsler.html

It doesn't fit "Platitude", "idiom" "cliche"

(Found it - its "Anti-cliche")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-clich%C3%A9

It's definitely 'cut off their nose to spite their face' (spiteful - out of spite).. as for the official word to describe this sorta thing..Good question. I just know it as an expression.

I think Example one should be "She cut off her nose to spite her face.

they were obviously both altered to pull their teeth to avoid the thread being distracted by the details of any one example.

yes, and the other one was a WOMAN needs a man like fish needs a bicycle.

i forget where either of them came from origeonally, but my mom used the first one all her life and she was born in 1920 in what was then the lower east side of new york, when it was the yiddish quarter.

the fish and bicycle one, i knew someone who had that on a t-shirt back the early 80s, and it was probably first voiced by one of the more or less famous bra-burners of the 70s.

now as for the actual question, yah i wish i knew too. as i haven't read the rest of the thread yet, maybe someone has come up with a creditable one.

there's probably a seperate name for intentionally MISquoting them to make a point too!

=^^=
.../\...

they were obviously both altered to pull their teeth to avoid the thread being distracted by the details of any one example.

yes, and the other one was a WOMAN needs a man like fish needs a bicycle.

i forget where either of them came from origeonally, but my mom used the first one all her life and she was born in 1920 in what was then the lower east side of new york, when it was the yiddish quarter.

the fish and bicycle one, i knew someone who had that on a t-shirt back the early 80s, and it was probably first voiced by one of the more or less famous bra-burners of the 70s.

now as for the actual question, yah i wish i knew too. as i haven't read the rest of the thread yet, maybe someone has come up with a creditable one.

there's probably a seperate name for intentionally MISquoting them to make a point too!

=^^=
.../\...

As mentioned earlier ,it appears to be "anti-cliche". The examples in the link quoted from 'Virginia Woolf' are the kind of thing I was getting at.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-clich%C3%A9