wind chill » Winchell

Chiefly in:   Winchell factor

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

  • Isn’t it just a tad convenient that Winchell’s factor of 80 is 1/100th of his date of deglaciation, which allows his scheme to match Hotchkiss’s minimum 100 years of age? (soc.history.medieval, Jun 12, 2003)
  • Much more freedom that way; allows you to wear pants in Kansas when the Winchell factor is 40 below. (alt.religion.kibology, Mar 2, 1999)

Analyzed or reported by:

Richard Fontana admits:

> I remember thinking (in third grade) that the Wind Chill Factor
> was the Winchell Factor.

Still on alt.usage.english, Maria Conlon analyzes:

> By the way, we also have a Winchell Factor, but we don’t pronounce it
quite that way. Anyway, I think the Factor is a creation of TV stations
that want to make even the weather more sensational a story than it is.

This eggcorn seems to stem from a pun, but some occurrences may be genuine.

| link | entered by piedrasyluz, 2005/02/24 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by codeman38 , 2005/02/25 at 12:38 am

    Also worth investigating: “windshield factor”. That particular eggcorn became a name for the phenomenon a while ago on alt.usage.english.

  2. 2

    Commentary by chris waigl , 2005/02/25 at 8:38 pm

    Thank you. The entry wind chill»windshield has been added.

  3. 3

    Commentary by Tim Colburn , 2005/03/08 at 2:50 am

    Actually, from the mathematical standpoint, the wind-chill “factor” isn’t a factor at all. It’s an “index.”

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