ABSTRACT
The most common form of word play in everyday life is the pun. One form of language play that has become common is to supply a missing antonym, mainly for words that have a negative prefix. Obstropolous is a humorous variant of obstreperous and has given rise to the colloquial form stroppy. While malapropism substitutions are based on similarity of sound and make no sense, there is also confusion between words that are similar in both form and meaning. Straitlaced and straightlaced are a tricky pair. Apparently, it is the former that is correct, but the latter makes plausible sense. Unfamiliar forms from other languages are often turned into familiar forms, even if the familiar form makes no sense. The word orangutan is a Malay/Indonesian word for a member of the ape family. It is literally ‘person-forest’. It is commonly pronounced in English as arang-atáng distorted to a reduplicated form.
