ephemeral girlie-man
Yep, I used that one, in high school, trying to impress a super-cute senior. I described a sort-of-feminine characteristic as ephemeral. And then felt deep shame for making the mistake. I know the guy remembers who I am, he came up to me five years later and started chatting with me at a coffee shop. And thus I learned a good haircut and some makeup will erase almost all past awkwardness.
But I'm not as forgiving as that guy. I'm on Prudence's side in this one. When a later boyfriend not only made the mistake, but argued with me about it, I pretty much knew there wasn't going to be much return on investing any more time with him. He defended to a really ridiculous end his idea that a moniker was a small amount of something.
I can't decide if I'm more embarrassed that I didn't get some earlier clue that he was more interested in having his rightness acknowledged than in actually being right; or that I revealed my less gracious nature by arguing right back about it: I made him look at the definition in the dictionary before I was satisfied.
Either way, a malapropism is like most mistakes in that it's not the mistake, but the recovery, on which we make our judgments.
If that boyfriend had just said "whoops," I wouldn't have the story to tell, would I?
Has a date royally screwed something up, but recovered to win you back? Or the other way: made a trivial mistake, but then so utterly flubbed the recovery that they had to hand over their key to the mansion?
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