salchow » sowchow

Classification: English – cross-language – vocalized /l/

Spotted in the wild:

  • I’m doing a tripel Sowchow, toe and loop. (link)
  • There are different types of jumps in figure skating a edge jump and pick jump a pick jump is a toe loop, flip and lutze, some edge jumps are waltz jump axel sowchow and loop. (link)

This is a rarer variant of the _salchow » sowcow_ eggcorn. See that entry for further remarks.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/04/01 |

salchow » sowcow

Classification: English – cross-language – vocalized /l/

Spotted in the wild:

  • Another big moment the same year was “the first time I did a double sowcow: […”] (link)
  • I really love watching brian skate and it was a honor to skate with him at stars on ice with the minnesota special olympics thanks for all his help with my double sowcow. (link)
  • The G-rated skating flick, starring Michelle Trachtenberg, Hayden Panettiere as rink rivals and (Joan Cusack and Kim Cattrall as their moms, couldn’t land the sowcow. Targeted at tweens on spring break, Ice Princess averaged a frosty $2,804 at 2,501 theaters. (Yahoo! Movie reviews)
  • Because they knew the competition would be tough that year, they decided to attempt the “triple-lutz-sowcow-off-the-dishwasher-nothing-but-net” move (as seen in “the cutting edge”). (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • desperate hours productions blog (link)

The _salchow_, sometimes referred to as _Salchow jump_ is a figure skating jump named after the Swedish figure skater Ulrich Salchow (1877-1949). Occasionally, we find the rarer form _sowchow_.

Names for athletic moves and maneuvers don’t really have to make much sense. Eggcorn users may be satisfied to suppose that the term is an obscure or jocular allusion to sows and cows.

The error can occur in other languages than English — a pan-linguistic eggcorn? This is from a young figure skater writing in French, who, however, is unsure of the spelling:

> Je suis un garçon et je fais du patin depuis 3 ans. Je fait le sowchow (je pense que ça s’écrit comme ça), le saut de valse, saut de lapin, cherry flip. Je suis rendu à l’étape 4 et j’ai eu ma première médaille d’or il y a moins de 3 semaines, à Longueuil. C’était ma 2ème compétition.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/04/01 |

Dachshund » Dashound

Classification: English – cross-language

Spotted in the wild:

  • A very good friend of mine has dashound. Her husband was a hunter (hogs, deer, whatever) and started taking the dashound along… (link)
  • Varmints were controlled by two semi-vicious dogs at different times. One was a dashound and the other a German shepherd. (link)

It’s easy to see the source of the reanalysis… everyone knows that ‘hound’ is nearly synonymous with ‘dog’… and the eggcorners can’t really be blamed since (I think) ‘hund’ means dog (in German?)

(I also discovered from some pet owners’ forum that other misspellings/shortenings are ‘dotsen’ and ‘doxen’. I can’t see the logic behind the first, since they’re not usually spotted, but perhaps the second has something to do with the sound of ‘dogs’? Or perhaps those two are just short-forms, rather than genuine mistakes. But ‘dashound’ certainly seems to be a widespread, eggcorny error. ‘Dashhound’ is less common, but it exists…)

_[2006-05-24, CW: Closed comments on this entry because of targetted spamming.]_

| 6 comments | link | entered by Sravana Reddy, 2005/03/20 |

prix-fixe » pre-fix

Chiefly in:   pre-fix menu

Variant(s):  prefix, pre-fixe, prefixe, pre-fixed, prefixed

Classification: English – cross-language

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Dinner : $20 Weekly Pre-Fixe.” (www.solanogrillandbar.com/menus/prefixe.htm)

A cross-language eggcorn, first brought to my attention by David Fenton in soc.motss (on 28 August 2004), who recalled the “pre-fix menu” he encountered at a D.C. restaurant a few years ago. Well, the cost is fixed ahead of time, right? Slightly Frenchier is “pre-fixe”, as in the example above. I reported these sightings in Postcards from Eggcornea on Language Log.

Here in Palo Alto, the University South News (written by Elaine Meyer) noted on 11 February 2005:

About Language. The advertisement for a prefix dinner is back! But it has improved: it is now a pre-fixe dinner. Optimists that we are, we celebrate progress, no matter how modest.

—–

Rationalizing the modifier as a participle (or, possibly, “restoring” the deleted past participle suffix) then gives us “prefixed”. Ed Keer reported wryly to ADS-L on 17 December 2004: “On my lunch walk today I passed a restaurant advertising “prefixed menu.” I don’t know what they have against bare roots.”

[Jeanette Winterson writes:

In New York I passed a Vietnamese restaurant with a board offering a Pre Fix Menu. I went inside to ask about this, and was told what you’d expect about the food prices, so I asked why they called it a Pre Fix. “Yeah,” said the guy, “we fix the Specials of the Day every morning, but before we fix those, we fix the set menu of the day, so that’s why it’s called a Pre Fix.” So now you know.

B.Z.]

| 2 comments | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/03/16 |

eclair » eggclair

Variant(s):  egg clair, egg-clair

Classification: English – cross-language

Spotted in the wild:

  • Desserts
    […] Fresh Fruits in Season
    Mini Napoleons and Pastries
    Mini Eggclairs
    Assorted Fancy Cookies
    […] (US Mercant Marine Academy, buffet selection)
  • But when the meal is done you must wander over to the 6 foot pastry case and pick out one of the homemade desserts. There are numerous fruit squares. Egg clairs, jumbo cookies, unbelievably moist triple chocolate layer cake, and you will never have apple struedel like theirs. (link)
  • […]
    New York Style Cheesecake
    Miniature Eggclairs
    Petite fours
    German Chocolate Cake
    […] (Renaissance Catering)
  • Sounds like my mom! Everytime I come home from college & go shopping with her, I get all my health foods. She always ends up buying chocolate ice cream, eggclairs etc. etc. (link)
  • We also went to the Italian Deli and Bakery. Picked up some fresh Locatelli Cheese right off the rind and some great Italian Bread. Yum. Also some mini Chocolate Eggclairs. (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

The standard form can also be spelled with the original acute accent: _éclair_.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/02/28 |