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bull » bowl

Chiefly in:   like a bowl in a china shop

Classification: English – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • And she’s described in reports as a bowl in a china shop, but somebody of unassailable high ethics, and also as a direct, directly reporting to the then chief financial officer. (CNN.com, rush transcript, January 16, 2002)
  • He [a dog] was kinda like a bowl in a china shop so to say. (If you knew how my mother is, & all of her nicknacks.) You would understand my last statement. He would knock everything over with his tail. (Midwest Exotics)
  • I begin to feel like a bowl in a china shop (which I guess must be pretty fragile). (guestbook entry)
  • On an intuition, Jennifer offered, “That’s why you and Mr Tate get along so well. He’s like an earthenware bowl in a china shop because he’s more real … more solid and down-to-earth.” (Ex Isle Forums, original fiction, February 19, 2005)
  • After numerous setbacks, I have finally made some progress with the BAR and CARB smog debacle. SInce I bought the car with Canadian title and license plates, this car has been like a bowl in a china shop with the BAR referee. (E28 Enthusiasts Forum, March 24, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

Paul Brians reported the quote from the CNN transcript to the Usenet forum alt.usage.english. There aren’t many clear examples of this reshaped idiom in the search engine archives, but it is mentioned as an “error of Engish” in a few places, for example in a long thread of April 2005 on the TiVo Community site, available via Google Cache.

The opinions on why bowl instead of bull vary. A Livejournal commenter admits to the eggcorn:

I used to think “bull in a china shop” was “bowl in a china shop.”
which made me wonder, wouldn’t a store that sells place settings actually WANT bowls in the shop?

To which the Livejournal’s owner replies:

Ha! Even funnier was that when I read that, I was thinking “hmm, it WOULD be dangerous to bowl in a china shop”—but you meant bowl as a NOOOOUN.

From the few examples we have, bowl can conjure up

  • the notion of fragility and/or the semantic overlap with china
  • the idea that a mundane bowl would feel out of place surrounded by delicate china
  • the perilous activity of bowling in a china shop, a concept not unlike that of the original idiom
| 3 comments | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2006/02/13 |

tongs » thongs

Chiefly in:   (go (at it)) hammer and thongs

Classification: English – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Ballal, Pillay and most others in the team claim to have proved a point; they go hammer and thongs against the Federation.” (link)
  • “Some friendly sibling rivalry was evident, as the brothers went at it hammer and thongs, trying to outdo each other.” (link)
  • “CONGRESSMAN: We were just always good friends and we went at it hammer and thongs from whatever it was 12 to 6 or 7. But then after all the arguments …” (link)
  • “Look, the city has been fighting hammer and thongs to get those that owe it millions in unpaid taxes and now he is waiving the same millions …” (link)

The “hammer” part of “hammer and tongs” (most often in “go hammer and tongs” or “go at it hammer and tongs”) is clear enough, but for people these days, most of us removed from any experience of blacksmithing, the “tongs” part is baffling. So some of us have rationalized the expression as involving “thongs” ‘whips’, that is, as referring to two sorts of weapons or instruments of punishment that might be used in agonistic confrontations. This one seems extremely unlikely to have arisen as a typo, and not very likely to have arisen through mishearing.

A hundred or so relevant google webhits (on 30 December 2005), mostly in the domains where agonistic confrontations are routine: sports and politics. There are some other hits deliberately playing with “thongs” as the name of an article of apparel.

I first heard this from an interviewee on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition on 30 December 2005.

| 3 comments | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/12/30 |

snuff » stuff

Chiefly in:   up to stuff

Classification: English – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • That means that when they see the test results and they find their local school is just not up to stuff, they can choose to send them to another area where they do well. (Legislative Assembly of Ontario, House Debate transcript, Oct 8, 2002)
  • One of the biggest of the flaws had to be the A.I. for the population that sometimes was just not up to stuff and would fail to properly fulfill their duties. (Express World, Apr. 12, 2003)
  • Maybe the Microsoft software isn’t quite up to stuff for the job yet and so they are using beta’s. (NewsForge forum, May 13, 2003)
| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/10/31 |

mast » mass

Chiefly in:   flying a flag at half-mass

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • Flying Your Flag Half Mass
    When you are on the court and tragedy strikes or some unexpected disturbing event leaves you injured to the very core, you must step back and allow yourself to feel the pain. It is time to fly your flag at half mass. (DesignerLife Learning Cafe)
  • The flag is flown at half mass, or in the middle of the flagpole, on Memorial Day. People do that to honor those Americans who died fighting for their country. (link)
  • Has anyone been to Disney since the attack on the USA? I keep receiving e-mails that Disney refuses to fly flags at half mass. (The Magical Mouse forum, September 19, 2001)
  • […]
    The book you have written and passed to your troops
    Is missing some lines and some very big loops
    A country in morning for loved ones that past
    A country that stands by its flag at half mass
    […] (Sgt. Moms)
  • the flag flew at half-mass today
    to cover the scars, to cover the pain
    all the heads are hung in shame
    the flag flew at half-mass today
    […] (Almost Smart, Writer's Forum, Jan 24, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

| 4 comments | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/10/27 |

die » dye

Chiefly in:   the dye is cast

Classification: English – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • “The dye is cast. The people will speak and I am hoping that the outcome will be an MDC victory,” he told reporters. (CNN, March 31, 2005)
  • Once the PR and marketing dye is cast, what’s a creative person to do? (OzOnline)
  • There are dead suns, smoldering suns, and lit suns, and the dye is cast in this matter when the suns are first formed. (ZetaTalk, Jul 15, 1995)
  • No, the media will make sure that the public knows good and well who Wes Clark is by the time the dye is cast. (Pipeline, blog entry, September 16, 2003)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Tom Rossen (via Mark Liberman, in e-mail)

Rarer, maybe, than the reinterpetation of the die is cast as referring to moulds and molten metal, this eggcorn is nonetheless genuinely present for some people. On the Phrase Finder site, a poster writes:

“Die is cast” as in throwing dice, I presume. I always thought it was “dye is cast” as in coloring something. Oh, well.

| 3 comments | link | entered by Chris, 2005/10/14 |
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