Comedienne Chelsea Handler spoke of the 5.4 magnitude Chino Hills earthquake in Southern California 7/29/08 as a trembler–a person who trembles or shakes. (Concise Oxford Dictionary)

Is Handler personifying the earthquake (using anthropomorphism)? But if she is personifying earthquakes–giving them human qualities–why would such a fearsome “type” such as an earthquake tremble?

Handler, a normally articulate funny lady, drew attention away from the punchline on her show Chelsea Lately when she meant to say temblor, which means earthquake. (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

Temblor is taken from Spanish which takes the root from medieval latin tremulare, literally to tremble. Thus, it’s easy to understand the mistake, which itself registers a magnitude of perhaps 2.0 on the Richter Scale.

Tags: chelsea, confusion, diction, earthquake, handler, lately, richter scale, temblor, trembler