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Chris -- 2025-05-10
‘Amok’ is a Malay word for frenzy. According to Wikipedia it came into English in the 17th century and soon after began to be written as ‘amuck.’ So this is ancient and nearly mainstrem. It gets 300,00 ghits vs 2,000,000 for the original. Examples:
Has Virginia’s Democracy run amuck with its muck? Muck is defined as “slimy dirt
or filth”. Sewage waste sludges, aka biosolids, fit appropriately ...
list.web.net/archives/ sludgewatch-l/2005-May/001083.html
One toaster stands alone in a world where appliances run amuck.
www.flashplayer.com/games/appliancesrunamuck.html
Spam Filters Run-Amuck: Is Your Message Getting Through?
www.articlesthatsell.com/spamfiltersarticle.htm
Political Correctness Run Amuck. People are too easily offended by nothing – the
prime issue with political correctness.
www.mypalal.com/pcamuck.html
Has Your Design Firm Run Amuck With Your Web Site?
www.livingnow.info/story/12764/ Has_Your_Design_Firm_Run_Amuck_With_Your_Web_Site
With the second of three debates completed, I think it is important to say that our democracy has run amuck. ...
www.angelfire.com/hero/tage/oct112004
Resident Evil is also corporate filmmaking run amuck, Hollywood run amuck…
It’s also about zombies run amuck…
www.flickfilosopher.com/flickfilos/ archive/2002/residentevil.shtml
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Now that the spam cloud has been cleared… Yes, this is an ancient eggcorn, going back to the 1670s or so. See the extensive entry in Hobson-Jobson, an Anglo-Indian dictionary from a century ago that catalogued many cross-linguistic eggcorns. (In the preface, the authors define “hobson-jobsons” as “corruptions, more or less violent, of Oriental words and phrases which have put on an English mask.”) Other examples from Malay:
bangsal (shed, warehouse) > bankshall
gadis (young woman) > goddess
gudang (warehouse) > godown
jung (Chinese ship) > junk
kampung (quarter, residential area) > compound
kris (Javanese dagger) > crease
padi (rice plant) > paddy
perahu (boat) > prow
Last edited by Ben Zimmer (2006-05-21 00:05:00)
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