coma » comma

Chiefly in:   lapse into a comma

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Jesus’ crucifixion was very unusual. Normally the person would lapse into a comma and die of suffocation. Jesus remained fully conscious and alert, feeling the experience completely, and remaining in total control until He was ready to go. This amazed those who witnessed it. (link)
  • I discuss this issue in advance and ask that I be allowed to die with dignity if I lapse into a comma, become mentally incapable of making my own decisions, etc. etc. (link)

This item is frequent in puns and in many cases could be a simple spelling error.

Sometimes, however, the variant is more likely to be a genuine eggcorn. A comma is often said to indicate a pause. Moreover, other medical terms have homonyms in the field of grammatical meta-language, like _syncope_, meaning a fainting spell.

| link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2004/12/08 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by Neil Crawford , 2005/02/21 at 11:55 am

    > www.thetoque.net/050111/l…

    That would be the Love Mussel possessing the following attribute:

    “This muscular manly mollusk is so desirable, it has been known to cause women to feint.”

    Perhaps they only feinted fainting.

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