The Eggcorn Database - v. 0.5

Joe Krozel’s post to the Eggcorn Forum already provides a very exhaustive investigation into the substitution of physical for fiscal.

Acoustically, the two adjectives are easy to conflate: the unstressed second syllable of physical is not very salient. Indeed, we find examples of online writers expressing their annoyance about this conflation in speech. Note that in the following example, it is entirely unclear of the person who pronounces fiscal like physical would also spell the first like the second:

I once had a supervisor that could not correctly pronounce “fiscal”. She always said, “Physical year.” If I had respected, trusted, or liked her, I would have shrugged it off as just one of those things that makes us human. Inside it only made me want to yell, Use phonetics woman! It’s two syllables not three! I’m from the South too and that is not an automatic license to add an extra syllable to every word. (link)

To quote from Joe’s post on how to possibly rationalize physical year:

The use of “physical” in the EGGCORN “physical year” is a reference to the “physical” set of dates which define the assessment year (different from the calendar year). One instance where a communicator might use the eggcorn “physical year” as a naive substitute for “fiscal year” is when he is NOT AWARE that the word “fiscal” exists for that purpose. This usage seems to invoke the definition of “physical” meaning “of or relating to the body” in the figurative sense of the body of dates that define the year in question.

On the other hand, let’s note that some writers use physical year in the opposite sense: to refer to the calendar year, and to distinguish it from any culturally determined, business, or indeed fiscal year whose start and end do not fall on January 1.

• This change was implimentated in the middle of August instead of at the end of the physical year. (link)
• Board Member, Jean Louis Bosquet made a motion to change HAES fiscal year from the physical year. (link)