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#1 2006-09-24 15:33:52

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Learn by WROTE (rote)

Google counts on Sept. 24, 2006
36,300 “learn by rote”
236 “learn by wrote”
Analysis by Joe Krozel

Something “learned by rote” is done so through routine and repetition. Sometimes, such repetition involves writing something out over and over again. It is this connection with writing that would lead one to generate the eggcorn “learn by WROTE.”

Examples:

larp601-garden is a town… history, literature and language arts; how to challenge students not just to learn by wrote, but to explore and discover, to learn through doing. ...
web.mit.edu/wplp/course/f98stud/garden.htm – 9k – Cached – Similar pages

Gertrude Bell letters test templateJust as they teach the smaller fry the Excursion and the Gallic Wars of Caesar, which they learn by wrote and of which they understand not a syllable. ...
www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/letters/l569.htm – 5k – Cached – Similar pages

HaloScan.com – CommentsThat is not true faith, that is words and actions you learn by wrote in order to fit into your world or avoid punishment by your society. ...
www.haloscan.com/comments/bigpharaoh/11 … 526054499/ – Similar pages

Last edited by jorkel (2006-09-26 06:50:06)

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#2 2006-09-26 06:43:07

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Re: Learn by WROTE (rote)

Fishbait made a nice comment about eye dialect when commenting on another post. Eye dialect is strictly pronunciation-based spelling—“says” becomes “sez”—but, I would expand that to what I would call familiar-word-based spelling if it isn’t already subsumed in that concept. ...E.g., writing “too” when one hears “to” or “there” when one hears “their” even if one knows better. (Perhaps because one’s internal spelling filter isn’t engaged when writing quickly.)

For the current construction “learn by wrote” the word “wrote” has replaced “rote.” It’s quite possible that some writers understand the concept of “rote” (repetition) and either believe it is spelled “wrote” or simply spell it with whatever familiar word they can find—i.e., “wrote”—because it sounds close enough to what they hear. In these instances, “learn by wrote” would not be an eggcorn.

Having said that, I still believe the phrase may qualify as an eggcorn in other circumstances. For someone out there may truly believe the phrase to be “learn by wrote” in the sense of writing something out repetitively. Ironically, they would not have learned the term “learn by wrote” in that manner!

Last edited by jorkel (2006-09-26 06:58:36)

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#3 2007-12-02 06:32:16

mcovarru
Member
Registered: 2007-11-06
Posts: 13

Re: Learn by WROTE (rote)

Just a little evidence in favour of the reanalyzed meaning—
Finally, some authors get writing so much, that they do it by wrote, and lack their own sense of creativity then.

Looks like the very ‘writing’ sense that you were looking for.

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#4 2007-12-02 19:05:44

Tom Neely
Eggcornista
From: Detroit
Registered: 2006-09-01
Posts: 121

Re: Learn by WROTE (rote)

This is the sort of eggcorn I always seek to invent as a joke. Now I have to sine off because my favorite song, “The Wreack of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” is playing on the radio.

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#5 2014-01-07 12:52:29

larrybob
Eggcornista
Registered: 2007-12-26
Posts: 96

Re: Learn by WROTE (rote)

For rote memorization:
Article comment: “For example, ESL education in this country is based on teaching wrote memorization of grammatical patterns in order to efficiently approach the primarily translation based English tests.”

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