Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
vicious cycle – 1,160,000 ghits
vicious circle – 1,340,000 ghits
I’m not at all sure about this one but I have noticed the use of “vicious cycle” only quite recently and feel it may be an eggcorn, though not a particularly striking one. If it is, it’s doing almost as well as the original despite, for me at least, seeming glaringly wrong – it conjures images of a wild bicycle intent on damaging anyone foolish enough to try to mount it.
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Peter, I think both terms (vicious cycle, vicious circle) are legitimate terms. The latter is seen as an entry in many/most dictionaries. And, I seem to recall hearing the former as a Macroeconomic concept relating consumer expectation and economic growth. I would just note that “cycle” adequately describes the phenomenon as there is causality between two factors.
Elsewhere on the Eggcorn forum you’ll find discussions of “viscous” circle and related mis-shapings. I don’t know that they turned out to be very fruitful.
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