Australian politician Tony Abbott unwittingly switched ‘suppository’ and repository’.


'Suppository' and 'repository' having unrelated meanings, were in the news recently, thanks to the Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott’s gaffe at a political campaign in Melbourne City.
Answering a question, he said, "No one -- however smart, however well-educated, however experienced -- is the suppository of all wisdom."

Instead of using the expression ‘repository of wisdom’ he used ‘suppository of wisdom’.

A suppository is a drug delivery system usually in a roughly conical or cylindrical shape, designed to be inserted into the rectum, vagina or urethra where it dissolves or melts and is absorbed into the blood stream”.

On the other hand repository is a place of storage. It is a place, warehouse, room, container etc where things may be stored.  A place where something, especially a natural resource is found in significant quantities is also called repository. Example, ‘repository of oil’.

A person or thing which is considered as a source of information, knowledge etc. or in which a particular quality may be found is also called repository.

Example, ‘repository of wisdom’, ‘repository of knowledge’.

Mr. Abbott unwittingly switched the words ‘suppository’ and repository’.

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