ever » every
Spotted in the wild:
- “Geologists have warned us of this possibility every since the last eruption.” (KATU TV - Portland, Oregon, US - news report on the latest ash plume from Mt. St. Helens.)
The Eggcorn Database - v. 0.5
Commentaries
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1
Commentary by Dan , 2006/11/29 at 12:34 am
I think this one is more likely a typo in most cases than an eggcorn. I have overshot ever and typed every more than once, myself, solely on reflex. Every is common enough that it just pops out sometimes.
[Reply by AMZ, 23 July 2008:
To Dan: while some occurrences might occur as typos, a very large number are not, but arise from some kind of reanalysis of ever since (what makes it questionable as an eggcorn is that the basis for the reanalysis isn’t clear — possibly every since is understood as elliptical for something like every time since). I’ve had informants explain to me that they recognize that some people say ever in this expression, but they say every, and Wilson Gray remarked on ADS-L on 21 April 2005 that if there was a standard for Black English (his preferred term), then evry since would be a standard BE item.
Brians’s Common Errors has an entry, which treats every since as a mistake in the form of the expression, not as a typo.]