Eggcorns

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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in this thread ( Fourth shoe-clad foot washed ashore... let the wild speculation begin! - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board ), I commented on words or phrases that were almost perfect homonyms with a correct word or phrase, but were thought by their users to be correct and were used repeatedly, like “deep-seeded” instead of “deep-seated”. There ought to be a term for these, I said. As i commented later, they aren’t quite the same as malapropisms.
Apparently, some people have taken to calling these “eggcorns”:

http://www.theeditorialeye.com/?action=readEyeExcerpt&contentID=79

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000018.html
i thought I’d pass that along. I never heard the term before, although I’m familiar enough with the concept.

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It’s worse than I thought. There’s an Eggcorn Database:

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/

More:

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For a blog based on neat word gimmicks that is entirely too dry. I’ve gotten more smiles out of the Congressional Record.

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Gaaaaah! Don’t encourage them!

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I’m surprised that ‘doubled eggs’ is not in that database.

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Whom should I not encourage? I know linguists. Their sense of humor is awfully twee and arcane. But Arnold Zwicky’s posts are scrupulously without humor of any kind, which gives the whole enterprise an almost creepy feeling.

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I absolutely love “Old-Timer’s Disease”.

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[QUOTE=NinetyWt]
I’m surprised that ‘doubled eggs’ is not in that database.
[/QUOTE]

Ahhhh, I get it. Yeah, it works both ways. Cool.

Not an eggcorn (unless you have a military background, maybe), but I always chuckle when my husband says someone has “artillery motives”.

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[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
Ahhhh, I get it. Yeah, it works both ways. Cool.

Not an eggcorn (unless you have a military background, maybe), but I always chuckle when my husband says someone has “artillery motives”.
[/QUOTE]

Sometimes, when I’m feeling like I’m awfully close to climbing a tower with an uzi, I do have “artillery motives.” :smiley:

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I say “grand delusions” instead of “grand illusions”.
*
I don’t have any grand delusions of becoming a supermodel.*
:smiley:

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[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
Ahhhh, I get it. Yeah, it works both ways. Cool.

Not an eggcorn (unless you have a military background, maybe), but I always chuckle when my husband says someone has “artillery motives”.
[/QUOTE]
Good one. But yeah, I think a eggcorn is technically something that sounds just like the usual phrase, but involves a different word. Artillery for ulterior is more of a malapropism.

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My first boss used to say “For all intensive purposes.”
Drove me crazy!

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I have known a few people that took their cars into the shop. The diagnosis was bad. Yep, they needed a new Cadillac converter.

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[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
Cadillac converter.
[/QUOTE]
That one’s in the linked database. It’s a fun read.

I thought of another one - people here say “riff-raff” instead of “rip-rap”.

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Interesting. Can you think of a pacific example? (Dear God, I heard this one last week at a seminar for would-be teachers. :smack: )

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[QUOTE=NinetyWt]
I thought of another one - people here say “riff-raff” instead of “rip-rap”.
[/QUOTE]

What? It’s supposed to be rip-rap? Are you sure?

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[QUOTE=Hogwash]
What? It’s supposed to be rip-rap? Are you sure?
[/QUOTE]

Riff-raff are undesirable humans. Rip-rap is rocks.

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Well, it’s a (Snoop) doggy-dog world.

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[QUOTE=Chefguy]
Riff-raff are undesirable humans. Rip-rap is rocks.
[/QUOTE]
Oh right, I completely missed the point there - I’d never heard of the term ‘rip-rap’ before so thought that the poster was implying that riff-raff was a corrupted version.

/Ignorance fought

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[QUOTE=Hogwash]
Oh right, I completely missed the point there - I’d never heard of the term ‘rip-rap’ before so thought that the poster was implying that riff-raff was a corrupted version.

/Ignorance fought
[/QUOTE]

I actually meant to reply to NinetyWt, as I thought he/she might be mixed up about the terms. Riprap.

One that I hear from time to time is “human cry” used in place of “hue and cry”.