Dictionary

crash blossom en · NOUN

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".

Meanings

1. A sentence, often a news headline, that is subject to incorrect interpretation due to syntactic and/or lexical ambiguity.
   • 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.” 2010 January 27, Ben Zimmer, “Crash Blossoms”, On Language, in New York Times Magazine, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2010:

Forms