defuse » diffuse

Classification: English – nearly mainstream

Spotted in the wild:

  • With the possibility of trouble starting up again, I felt that this was a good way to help diffuse any complications similar to the last time. (in a fan fiction)
  • It’s 2004 and India and Pakistan are at war, both with missiles ready and aimed. The American president and his top advisors must diffuse the situation. (BBC Four)

Analyzed or reported by:

This eggcorn involves a metaphor shift: the problem or situation at hand likened a noxious substance that can be rendered harmless by scattering it about and thereby diluting it, instead of to a bomb that must be defused.

As of 2004/12/23, Google finds 18,400 hits for [_”diffuse the situation”_](www.google.com/search?hl=…) vs 33,200 for [_”defuse the situation”_](www.google.com/search?num…). This shows that the eggcorn is entering the mainstream, probably because the underlying analogy appears compelling to many.

| link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2004/12/23 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by Arnold Zwicky , 2005/04/02 at 6:22 am

    James Cochrane, Between You and I, complains about the “confusion” between the two words (without giving examples) — “The two words should not be confused but frequently are, particularly in the ‘quality’ newspapers” — but I think the traffic is all in one direction.

  2. 2

    Commentary by Justin Jonsson , 2006/01/13 at 2:58 pm

    “This shows that the eggcorn is entering the mainstream, probably because the underlying analogy appears compelling to many.”

    I think you give people far too much credit. I think this is entering the mainstream simply out of ignorance and apathy for proper diction.

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