pale » pail

Chiefly in:   beyond the pail

Classification: English – not an eggcorn

Spotted in the wild:

  • “… to both explain and construct human psychology based on these ideas and thus restrict it, somewhat, within this sphere; all else lies beyond the pail.” (link)
  • “Calling other candidates “wolves in the manger” is beyond the pail.” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • David Scriven (link)
  • Arnold Zwicky (link)

On 2005/02/16 , Scriven reported “2,150 Google hits, most of which appear to use it as a pun.” (There are now about five times that number.) But there are some that seem to be serious.

In my Language Log piece I maintain that this error is the result of treating “beyond the [pel]” as an unanalyzable idiom and using a familiar spelling (”pail”) for the baffling part [pel] (representing a now-obsolete noun “pale”). So, not an eggcorn, but a related type of error (which I decided to call “pails”, from this very case). There might, of course, be a few people out there who have managed to see pails in the idiom.

| link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2007/08/16 |

Add your commentary

A (valid) e-mail address is required, but it will never be displayed or communicated to anyone without your consent. Comment moderation may be in place and delay posting of your commentary. Please don't re-submit it.

Separate paragraphs by blank lines. You can use the following HTML tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> .

Please remember that comments on entries should add data or pertinent remarks.

(required)

(required)