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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2006-12-10 16:33:09

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

ReFURNISH (refurbish)

This one’s a toughie to track down. Good luck to others who might try. Let’s just say from personal experience I used to hear/understand “refurnished” whenever someone actually said “refurbished,” and it was probably many years before I noted the distinction. To “refurbish” means to renovate. And, if one is talking about refurbishing apartments, it might actually involve refurnishing! So, it’s very easy for a person unfamiliar with the more sophisticated term to simply mishear and misinterpret it.

The only other way I might track down this eggcorn is to locate another firsthand account where someone discusses the very same mixup. So far I haven’t turned up any such discussion when placing “refurnish” and “refurbish” into the same Google query.

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#2 2006-12-27 18:52:24

furby100
Member
Registered: 2006-12-04
Posts: 7

Re: ReFURNISH (refurbish)

It’s a reinterpretation of a word (furbish) that is not used in common discourse, into a more common one, which seems to be the source of many eggcorns.

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