limb » lurch
Spotted in the wild:
- “There are no legal weapons. There’s nothing left in the arsenal. We’re out on a lurch.” (Ralph Klein, premier of the Canadian province of Alberta. As reported by CBC News, June 30, 2005)
A google on “out on a lurch” results in 35 hits at the time of making this entry. A combination, seemingly, of “left in the lurch” and “out on a limb.”
[Edited by Ben Zimmer and marked “questionable”: because of the lack of phonetic similarity between limb and lurch, this is probably better classified as an idiom blend.]
[Edited by Chris Waigl and boldly marked as “not an eggcorn” — idiom blends are interesting and amusing, but a different stroke of fish.]
1
Commentary by Paul Sorensen , 2006/08/25 at 2:18 pm
Dr Seuss might be the source of this misunderstanding. In “Oh, the places you’ll go”, you’ll find the following passages next to a picture of a boy hanging from the branch of a tree:
I’m sorry to say so
but, sadly, it’s true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you
You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
and your gang will fly on.
You’ll be left in a Lurch.
You’ll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you’ll be in a Slump.
The way Seuss uses the word Lurch, seems to imply it is a physical thing, like a tree (”You’ll come down from the Lurch”). Although this is likely just a fun twist of words for Seuss, children could easily begin to think of a Lurch as a tree. Maybe Ralph Klein had been reading Dr. Seuss just before making his statement.