“You mean,” he said, “a crocodile.”

In Ogden Nash’s poem, “The Purist,” there is a Professor Twist who obsesses too much about language:

I give you now Professor Twist,

A conscientious scientist,

Trustees exclaimed, “He never bungles!”

And sent him off to distant jungles.

Camped on a tropic riverside,

One day he missed his loving bride.

She had, the guide informed him later,

Been eaten by an alligator.

Professor Twist could not but smile.

“You mean,” he said, “a crocodile.”