fell » fowl

Chiefly in:   one fowl swoop

Classification: English – questionable – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

The new meaning is ‘a chicken swoop’. Chickens are birds. Birds do swoop. I’m sure the intended meaning is still at least ’single’ (as in ‘a single deadly action - Oxford Concise) but I’m not sure that anyone seriously believes fowl are the most appropriate bird to convey this meaning. This must be the hen that laid the eggcorn;)

See also fell»foul.

[CW, 2005/08/29: marked as “questionable”. The substitution certainly involves a semantic reinterpretation, but phonetically, the distance between _fell_ and _fowl_ is rather a stretch.]

| 2 comments | link | entered by b166er, 2005/08/28 |

fell » foul

Chiefly in:   one foul swoop

Classification: English – questionable – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

The word ‘foul’ (offensive, noxious, unfair) could often apply to that which is ‘fell’ (fierce, ruthless, terrible, deadly). The above example relating to the forced eviction of settlers in Gaza is such an example. This coincidence of meaning and the words’ similarity in sound combined the low awareness of the word ‘fell’ creates the ideal conditions for an eggcorn.

The Concise Oxford defines ‘at one fell swoop’ as ‘in a single (deadly) action’. Popular use of the phrase and the eggcorn often draws on the ’single action’ part of the meaning only. For example, deleting all items at once from your Microsoft Office clipboard is neither offensive nor deadly. Though it can be done in one single action this swoop would be neither foul nor fell. Hence either meaning is equally [in]appropriate. The same applies to the Between The Lines example.

The Guardian Unlimited book reviewer in another example above may have quite knowingly used the eggcorn because the word foul is so appropriate in the context of a kiss and tell biography.

Media Monitors’ A Case for Ethics talks about ‘a dirty deed’ thus underlining the new meaning of the eggcorn.

In a somewhat self-referencing example, the Christian Times writer used written words improperly and thus partially destroyed some of his own good work.

See also fell»fowl.

[CW, 2005/08/29: marked as “questionable”. The substitution certainly involves a semantic reinterpretation, but phonetically, the distance between _fell_ and _foul_ is rather a stretch.]

| Comments Off link | entered by b166er, 2005/08/28 |

wangle » wrangle

Chiefly in:   wrangle an invitation

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

  • “… jobshop will invite your team to tour their facility (or if you’re a good salesperson maybe you can call some plating shops and wrangle an invitation); …” (link)
  • “You love to cook and we love to eat, so please accept this gift as our shameless attempt to wrangle an invitation to dinner. Happy Birthday, Mom!” (link)
  • “He had made several frantic efforts to wrangle an invitation to the White House.” (link)

Several people — most recently, Ann Burlingham — have suggested “wrangle an invitation” to me as an eggcorn for “wangle an invitation”. The idea is that “wangle” is not a very common word, in fact a much less common word than “wrangle” (which gets considerable press in cowboy-related contexts, including Wrangler jeans). Entirely plausible (and consonant with my own impressions), though the history turns out to be much more complex than that.

(more…)

| 2 comments | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/08/21 |

hoarfrost » whorefrost

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Me recently at Antelope Island - Great Salt Lake surrounded by whorefrost. …” (link)
  • “… yet it was not to be …for the wicked cold hardness of the waters of the world froze solid …and the air (error) of it ….turned into whorefrost ….” (link)

Jess Anderson suggested on the Usenet newsgroup soc.motss (20 August 2005) that “whorefrost” might occur as an eggcorn. After all, the “hoar” of “hoarfrost” is opaque. I found a few examples that appear to be genuine (some are plays on words), but these could be simple spelling errors. On the other hand, the ‘bad woman’ connotation of “whore” might be vivid to some people, who take hoarfrost to be a nasty force of nature.

| Comments Off link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/08/21 |

get-go » gecko

Chiefly in:   from the gecko

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

  • The main projected task I set out from the gecko was to contact Rare and inquire about the game itself. (link)
  • We concur; spare the tar and ruffle some feathers later. Best the minors know from the gecko that slovenly behavior and poor work ethics will not be tolerated in our civilized society. (link)
  • You should let the customer know from the gecko that no creative project has ever finalized as planned. (WebDeveloper Forum)
  • Never mind, this cascade is doomed from the gecko. (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, Aug 9, 2004)

Marked as “questionable” because the semantics of _gecko_ in this expression are unclear.

| 2 comments | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/08/06 |