Someone recently used "on-limits" to describe something that was allowed, i.e. not "off-limits." The same person subsequently described unplugging something as "plugging it out," i.e. the opposite of "plugging it in." To be clear, this person is a native English speaker and is engaging in word play.
I found these to be rather charming creations, but are obviously not proper or common usage. I am curious if this sort of thing is a known phenomenon and if there is a word to describe it.
This concept rings similar to a malaphor, i.e. a mixture of two aphorisms ("we'll burn that bridge when we come to it"), and it sort of resembles an unpaired word, wherein the removal of a negative prefix does not result in an antonym (ambiguate is not an antonym of disambiguate).
Would love to hear any thoughts on this.