Dundrearyism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A twisted and consequentially nonsensical aphorism.

    "Like the argot once confined to a class, some of his phrases have become part of the general idiom. A Dundrearyism can be recognized as soon as uttered, like an Irish bull."

Synonyms

All synonyms
malaphor

Example

More examples

"Like the argot once confined to a class, some of his phrases have become part of the general idiom. A Dundrearyism can be recognized as soon as uttered, like an Irish bull."

Etymology

Named after Lord Dundreary, a foolish aristocrat in Tom Taylor's play Our American Cousin (1858), who utters remarks of this kind; + -ism.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.