Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I saw this initially in a (locked) LiveJournal post. Google has 139 hits for “endurance vile,” and most are clearly intentional word play. However, there are several instances on the first page of results that I think qualify as eggcorns:
“What is at issue is the fact when it comes to national security we really are the Keystone cops:- we have either blown any chance of prosecuting a real bad guy or, with an equivalent degree of breathtaking ineptitude and indifference have permitted yet another Australian citizen to languish in endurance vile for several years.” Link.
“Old in years like the rest of you, but even older in kriegie terms of endurance vile.” Alfred Jenner (Britain): Tribute to Dixie Deans of Stalag Luft. (Note: this may be a transcriber’s error/eggcorn; this page contains speeches given at a WWII prisoners of war conference.)
“Raised by storm troopers, I knew the Big Red D on my report card would remove me from life as I knew it for a very long time. It was endurance vile for me.” Link.
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This one surprised me a bit. In Google terms, “in durance vile” is relatively uncommon for a phrase that means “in jail.” It only gets 11,000 hits while “in the pokey” gets 86,000 hits and “in the clink” 105,000 (though the last figure may be inflated a bit by a movie that has “in the clink” as part of the title). We usually figure a phrase starts getting eggcorned only once it has enough currency amongst speakers that it’s used in speech a lot and therefore misheard. But I’m not sure “in durance vile” is at that level; I think its transmission is for the most part print-driven. On the other hand, I guess it’s possible that a few people might simply have misremembered the phrase from having seen it in print.
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