Comments on: Shifting Idioms: An Eggcornucopia

By: In Anchor » A Sale Of Two Titties - Is Wordplay The New Foreplay?

In Anchor » A Sale Of Two Titties - Is Wordplay The New Foreplay? — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:17:48 +0000

[...] identification of many more eggcorns, including some that Oxfore University Press editor Ben Zimmer listed which could almost be considered a part of mainstream [...]

By: Will

Will — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:27:36 +0000

Chaise lounge:
Etymology: by folk etymology from French chaise longue
Date: circa 1906

“Somehow, over the last thirty or forty years, teams have come to “clinch” the pennant.”

–That’s because “clinch” means “to make final” or “settle.”

By: Are We Giving Free Rei(g)n to New Spellings? : OUPblog

Are We Giving Free Rei(g)n to New Spellings? : OUPblog — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:11:55 +0000

[...] segment here.) The whole thing was inspired by an OUPblog column I wrote a few months ago, “Shifting Idioms: An Eggcornucopia.” With the help of some amusing animated characters, ABC News correspondent Robert Krulwich [...]

By: SEO WORLD NEWS » Blog Archive » A Sale Of Two Titties - Is Wordplay The New Foreplay?

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:14:40 +0000

[...] identification of many more eggcorns, including some that Oxfore University Press editor Ben Zimmer listed which could almost be considered a part of mainstream [...]

By: Search Engine Optimization Blog » A Sale Of Two Titties - Is Wordplay The New Foreplay?

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:17:08 +0000

[...] identification of many more eggcorns, including some that Oxfore University Press editor Ben Zimmer listed which could almost be considered a part of mainstream [...]

By: Talley Sue Hohlfeld

Talley Sue Hohlfeld — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:14:14 +0000

Mia wrote: “I think of the “chaise longue/chaise lounge” one in particular. That one just LOOKS like something a spellchecker would do”

Perhaps, but I was the copyeditor at McCall’s only a few years after computers and spell-checkers became common in the industry yet still before very many non-tech, non-business people had them in their homes. And I got a letter from a reader scolding me for using the wrong term; everyone knows, she wrote, that it is “chaise lounge.”

I think she had been mis-reading it; most folks weren’t spell-checking things much at that time.

By: Alexis

Alexis — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 23:37:28 +0000

I don’t think “clinch” is an eggcorn for “cinch”. They’re just two similar-sounding words with meanings that both make sense and occur in “_____ the pennant”.

By: Oliver Faltz

Oliver Faltz — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:24:26 +0000

Here are a few I have heard locally. Sarcasm became sourcasm, and it means the same. Whimsical became wimpsical, which means wimpy. I don’t use Lackadaisical any more, because the folks who say laxadaisical think I’m saying it wrong.

By: Kaleberg

Kaleberg — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:03:30 +0000

It’s nice being able to find all these eggcorns under one oak tree.

My favorite was the Charlie Brown cartoon where he is playing tag and cries out “Alley alley oxen free-o!” and, I believe, Lucy corrects him, “That is supposed to be ‘Alley, alley, all out are in free’” Charlie Brown was quite embarrassed, but there was no way I was going to get rid of my oxen free-o.

By: Mia

Mia — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:27:02 +0000

Since so much of the recognition and trackig of eggcorns refers to their written form, I wonder how much can be attributed to spellcheckers? I think of the “chaise longue/chaise lounge” one in particular. That one just LOOKS like something a spellchecker would do; and there are plenty of people who might not question their spellchecker program on words that they are uncertain of.