Wow – It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything. Apologies, a combination of factors (namely grad school apps/visits/funding and work) has left me a bit uninspired of late.
However – today inspiration struck! During crunch time for applications I limited my posts to funny videos, websites, etc but it’s time to get back to business.
I was reading a movie review on nytimes.com and the critic described one of the characters as “strait-laced.” The spelling sort of jumped out at me because I, like many people apparently, assumed it was “straight-laced” – sort of like a straight-man or something like that. After a quick Google it turns out the both spellings have wide usage but the brief encounter with this word reminded me about one of my favorite linguistic phenomena – the eggcorn.
The term was coined in an older post on the Language Log by Mark Liberman. Someone had apprently used the word “eggcorn” in place of acorn in written form. The reason why this type of misusage is strange is because it doesn’t really fit into a category of language errors. The closest would probably be a malapropism but because “eggcorn” and “acorn” are essentially homonyms it doesn’t really fit the definition of the “use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context.”
The rise of Internet culture has exposed many eggcorns – which, should not be mistaken for instances of a single clueless blogger who might have known better. To cite the example I mentioned above, “straight-laced” is used 66% of the time, although it should be “strait-laced” (according to lexicographers at Oxford Dictionaries).
You can check out an awesome compilation of eggcorns at the Eggcorn Database. Here are a few of my faves:
Instead of bludgeon –> bloodgen
Instead of chic –> sheik
Instead of “chock full” –> “chalk full”
Instead of “cold-hearted” –> “coal-hearted”
Instead of “dog-eat-dog” –> “doggy-dog” I know for a fact that this was used intentionally by Snoop.
Instead of “for all intents and purposes” –> “for all intensive purposes”
Instead of bludgeon Instead of “martial law” à”marshall law” I love this one! Maybe people of the Cold War Era are confusing it with the Marshall Plan?
Instead of “pantywaist” –> “pantywaste” OK – this isn’t super common because we don’t dress our children in pantywaists anymore but who could think that ‘pantywaste’ was the right variant?! Just trying to imagine what exactly a panty-waste would be is kind of revolting.
Instead of “reckless” –> “wreckless” This is often seen in cases of ‘wreckless driving’ – which would seem to imply a perfect driving record rather than what the speaker is trying to convey.
