Misplaced Pages

Talk:Eggcorn

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Glades12 (talk | contribs) at 10:23, 27 July 2020 (→Psychology Today: new section). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 10:23, 27 July 2020 by Glades12 (talk | contribs) (→Psychology Today: new section)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
WikiProject iconLinguistics Start‑class
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Linguistics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of linguistics on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LinguisticsWikipedia:WikiProject LinguisticsTemplate:WikiProject LinguisticsLinguistics
StartThis article has been rated as Start-class on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale.
???This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
Articles for deletionThis article was nominated for deletion on 21 December 2006. The result of the discussion was keep/speedy keep.

Archives
Archive 1Archive 2Archive 3
Archive 4Archive 5Archive 6

Changes come slowly; don't chomp on the bit!

Somebody recently added "chomp on the bit" as an eggcorn for "champ on the bit". It was reverted, and I heartily agree. An eggcorn typically adds a bit of information, or humor, or both to the meaning of the original. The phrase "chomp on the bit", as a variation of "champ on the bit", does neither. It is a result of a shift in English. The term "champ" meaning "to bit or chew noisily" has become antiquated and rarely used, and has been replaced by "chomp". See for more. Paulmlieberman (talk) 13:59, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

An eggcorn I encountered in the diaries of the mass-murderer Fred West: "car of van" for "caravan". Nuttyskin (talk) 05:02, 4 April 2017 (UTC) Nuttyskin (talk) 05:02, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Eggcorn vs. Mondegreen

The article seems to imply that eggcorns are different from mondegreens in some important but unstated way. As far as I can tell they are different words for the same phenomenon, which is fine. Is there any real well sourced linguistic distinction or can we just say that both Geoffrey Pullum and Sylvia Wright both independently noticed the phenomenon and each gave it a different name? Nolandda (talk) 22:27, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Yes, there is a difference. An eggcorn uses words that sound similar (and have not, as with mondegreens, been misheard) to words or phrases, and have a meaning that is similar to the original term. Example: old-timer's disease for Alzheimer's Disease. A mondegreen, such as wrapped up like a douche, has nothing to do with the original revved up like a deuce. Paulmlieberman (talk) 14:03, 1 June 2017 (UTC)
However, like mondegreens, an eggcorn often arises when a word or expression has been communicated verbally. It may then pass into common currency in a written medium, typically the Internet. Witness all of the sudden and a whole nother. Nuttyskin (talk) 15:16, 6 July 2017 (UTC)
These are all interesting hypotheses about the distinction between the terms. Is there any academic or other authority we can reference to clarify the true difference (assuming one exists). Nolandda (talk) 18:28, 24 August 2017 (UTC)
One place to start might be here, including LanguageLog link. - phi (talk) 18:16, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Eggcorn. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

checkY An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 06:33, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

Proposed example

  1. "Bone Apple Tea". Know Your Meme. 2018-07-03.
Added to the article by User:Robdawg344 04:06, 7 May 2018‎. Moved to talk page by Cnilep (talk) 01:19, 8 May 2018 (UTC)
I support the addition of 'Bone apple tea' as it is particularly famous. Jamgoodman (talk) 19:13, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
I also support the addition of 'Bone apple tea'. It is famous and illustrates the eggcorn concept fairly well. Chrisma0 (talk) 19:12, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
Added to the article 21:31, 20 July 2018‎ by User:Hferlauto. Moved to talk page by Cnilep (talk) 23:41, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Proposed examples

  • abject lesson (object lesson)
  • all and all (all in all)
  • another thing coming (another think coming)
  • beckon call (beck and call)
  • biting my time (biding my time)
  • bold-face lie (bald-face lie)
  • chomp at the bit (champ at the bit)
  • day in age (day and age)
  • deep-seeded (deep-seated)
  • doggy-dog world (dog-eat-dog world)
  • jerry-rigged (jury-rigged)
  • pass mustard (pass muster)
  • Old-Timers' Disease (Alzheimer's Disease)
  • one in the same (one and the same)
  • take it for granite (take it for granted)
  • towing the line (toeing the line)
  • worse comes to worse (worse comes to worst) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.66.142.147 (talk) 23:16, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

Htroberts (talk) 17:27, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

I support the addition of "Welsh rarebit" and "doggy-dog world" but few other examples you've listed are very common. Jamgoodman (talk) 19:15, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
I would like to see at least "doggy-dog world" be included. It's very common and exemplifies the idea very well, imho. It's also the title of a Snoop Dogg single: Doggy_Dogg_World. Here's a grammarist.com entry on it: https://grammarist.com/eggcorns/doggy-dog-dog-eat-dog/. If there are no objections I would add it.Chrisma0 (talk) 19:10, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

Proposed additions November 2019

Out of the previous list, some don't really seem like eggcorns, or likely mistakes, but I've definitely seen "beckon call" in print multiple times. Recommend adding it.

I'd also like to suggest adding "Phoenician blinds" for "Venetian blinds". I know perfectly well that they're "Venetian", but for some reason I sometimes hear "Phoenician" when people mention them—and it turns out that people have been making that mistake since at least 1893: here, in the Ohio Educational Monthly, vol. XLII, Samuel Findley, Akron, Ohio, and collected in Marshall Brown's Bulls and Blunders, Lakeside Press, Chicago (1893), repeated in Humour of Bulls and Blunders, University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1906), among others; here it is in Tom Robbins' novel, Skinny Legs and All, Bantam (1990), and Richard Lederer's The Revenge of Anguished English, Macmillan (2007). P Aculeius (talk) 23:12, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Thanks P Aculeius, but both examples sound like regular malapropisms rather than eggcorns. Please see Talk:Eggcorn/Archive_4#Proposal_to_radically_reduce_the_number_of_examples for why it's best if we stick with clear, unambiguous examples. Adrian J. Hunter 23:52, 18 November 2019 (UTC)
According to this article, a malapropism differs from an eggcorn in that it creates a nonsensical phrase, while an eggcorn exhibits creativity, logic, or ignorance... how is either of the suggestions nonsensical? "Beckon" is derived from the same root as "beck", and has a similar meaning, so it makes perfect sense as a substitution for the similar-sounding "beck and" in the phrase "beck and call", although it arises from ignorance of the idiom. It's a textbook example of an eggcorn. Similarly, the phrase "Phoenician blinds" isn't nonsensical; it's the substitution of one demonym for another arising from ignorance, but it makes just as much sense—it's simply unidiomatic. They're certainly better examples than "mating name" or "spurt of the moment", since "maiden" and "spur" are familiar words in everyday use, and much less likely to confuse people than "beck" or the very different cultures of Venice and Phoenicia—whose descriptive adjectives just happen to sound very much alike. And while "preying mantis" makes a lot of sense, it's as likely to arise as a spelling mistake as from a misunderstanding between whether the mantis is named for its posture or its behaviour. If you want "clear and unambiguous" examples, these are the ones you want. P Aculeius (talk) 00:44, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

The two following examples were added by User:McRousers on 30 November 2019, and removed by User:Cnilep on 2 December.

  • baited breath instead of bated breath
  • off one's own back instead of off one's own bat

Note that "baited breath" appears more than once in the talk archives; there has never been consensus to add it. Cnilep (talk) 08:18, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

True examples of eggcorns

My daughter once worked with a man who used lots of eggcorns. (And had no idea they were incorrect) Such as: Go through something with a fine toothcomb He didn't batter an eyelid Well have to batter down the hatches They were calm and collective about the situation — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.24.62.92 (talk) 08:29, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

Other Examples of Eggcorns?

1. Nip it in the butt (bud) - since there are fewer people growing plants 2. Go for the juggler (jugular) - juggler works best when those you are targeting are clowns! 3. Wet your appetite (whet) - hopefully with a nice drink :) --Althecomputergal (talk) 15:28, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

Actually, none of these are eggcorns. They fail the test "The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original but plausible in the same context". Paulmlieberman (talk) 02:41, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

Psychology Today

The URL of the Psychology Today article cited here has been excluded from the Wayback Machine. Should we remove the links entirely? PT is a magazine, so the article is probably available offline anyway. Glades12 (talk) 10:23, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

Categories: