crash blossom

English

Etymology

From a headline, "Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms". The author's intended interpretation is that the violinist (Diana Yukawa), who has blossomed, is linked to a JAL plane crash (since her father was on the plane). However, through syntactic ambiguity, the sentence can also be interpreted to mean that the violinist was linked to something called a "crash blossom".[1]

Noun

crash blossom (plural crash blossoms)

  1. (linguistics) A sentence, often a news headline, that is subject to incorrect interpretation due to syntactic and/or lexical ambiguity.
    • 2010, Ben Zimmer, Crash Blossoms, New York Times:
      Nouns that can be misconstrued as verbs and vice versa are, in fact, the hallmarks of the crash blossom. Take this headline, often attributed to The Guardian: “British Left Waffles on Falklands.”

References

  1. ^ Ben Zimmer, "On Language: Crash Blossoms", New York Times Magazine, January 27, 2010 online text
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