Opening a terminal

I am running OSX 10.7.5 ,
When I open a terminal I get the following message :
Last Login : a date
login(212,0x7fff76d02960) malloc : *** error for object 0x10952b780 : pointer being freed was not allocated
*** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
[Process completed ]

Result I can not use the terminal
I can anybody help out
Many thanks in advance
dobby

Try this.

Open Finder then goto the top menu bar and the Go menu. Click that and hold down 'Option' Key. You will notice Library come up. Clicl that then Preferences. Then in the Spotlight box copy and paste com.apple.Terminal.plist into it. Once you have found it drag it to the Desk Top and then open Terminal..lF all is good you can now trash the .plist on your desktop . . .

Thanks for the answer .
But it did not work .
As soon as I try to open a terminal it creates a lock file

All i can suggest then it to try and repair permissions via Disk Utility or use something like Pacifist for Mac - CNET Download.com and using your install OS if you put it on a DVD or Thumb Drive is to extract Terminal.app from the install media and see if it will over ride the one you have now . . . Apart from that im out of ideas....
Report back though as others could have a answer that use Terminal a lot

Cheers

Do you have anything in your Home folder with the extension .command? If so, move it to the desktop and try again.
Also, have you messed around with any dot files? (.bashrc or .bash_profile)

Many thanks for all the answers .
Permission Repair from the original Snow Leopard disk, seems to do the trick .
Anyhow I have the Terminal back after Permission Repair was complete and restarting the system

^^^^^^ Good to here