fiscal » physical

Chiefly in:   physical year

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Proposed Budget of Expenditures with Tax Levy for Physical Year Beginning July 1, 2004, to and including June 30, 2005 (Ashdown Schools Budget, as of Oct 27, 2004)
  • The studio had a gross income of $18 million the first twelve months after the war, but that declined to $4 million during the physical year of September 1947 to September 1948, and led to a net defect of some $6 million. (moderntimes.com, accessed Nov 23, 2008)
  • ANNUAL REPORT OF THE LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY FOR THE PHYSICAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1872. (Margoliss & Moss fine books, accessed Nov 23, 2008)
  • For the physical year ending June 2006, revenue has been weak, and expenditure has been high, with most cash outflows going to our consultants. (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

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)

| link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2008/11/23 |

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