Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
“Last November, a psychologist looking for evidence of depression in dogs announced that he had stumbled upon this illusive evidence.”
From an article titled “Beastly Powers”, about animals maybe predicting earthquakes, New Scientist (Aust edition) 17 Feb 2007, p34.
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This one is an outstanding find: it has so many aspects to it. Clearly the intended phrase is “elusive evidence”—or evidence that is hard to track down, grasp, or reproduce. “Illusive” means deceptive, or producing illusion. In one sense, something which creates illusion may in fact contribute to it’s elusiveness—so this might be one source of the confusion.
In many instances, the misusage is a malapropism—where someone replaces a word with an inappropriate word that might sound close to the original. In the following two examples, the authors intend the word “elusive,” but incorrectly write “illusive” ...
Why Old Guard?... however that specific time period in the US remains illusive. Evidence of its existence can be seen in the artwork of Tom of Finland, Etienne, ...
www.fetbot.com/Articles/featured/apacrypha-830.shtml – 16k – Cached – Similar pages
Danny Is Back! – BlackSDAWith baited breathe and dvd recorders at the ready we waited…finally, perhaps we would see the illusive evidence!!! What a letdown, what a melodrama, ...
www.blacksda.com/forums/index.php?showt … 6&view=old – 151k – Supplemental Result – Cached – Similar pages
Another curious usage is where the word “illusive” takes on an incorrect meaning like “illuminating” or “illustrative.” In the following example, the utterer vaguely recalls the original form “elusive evidence,” but inserts the word “illusive” with it’s incorrect meaning…
Comments on: Are We Alone Out Here?Besides finding illusive evidence to satisfy my kids’ questions, I’d also love to connect with other parents, as I have a lot of the same issues they do, ...
www.agnosticmom.com/2006/01/13/are-we-a … here/feed/ – 21k – Supplemental Result – Cached – Similar pages
In the following example, the word “illusive” is probably used properly, but the utterer draws upon the construction “elusive evidence,” as in the previous example. Does this constitute an eggcorn or a borrowed contextual usage? (I’ve struggled with this issue before: see my discussion of “elegant speech” vs. “eloquent speech”—both usages are correct, but one may have preceded, and therefore suggested, the other.) ...
Light – Google Books Resultby Jacob Abbott – 1871 – 313 pages
Thus the vaulted appearance of the sky is the creation of our senses, or;, rather, of our minds under the illusive evidence of our senses. ...
books.google.com/books?id=QEEIAAAAIAAJ…
Here are a few more examples that may fall into the above categories. The exact classification is difficult because one cannot always identify the intended meaning through context. Some might even involve misspellings (which I haven’t previously addressed).
Although no longer a part of the world we live in today, our vast …The Vision Is Here will work to produce the long illusive evidence for existence of a real Godhead Being; thereby, the message here will strives to offer …
www.publishedauthors.net/jerrymcswain/index.html – 30k – Cached – Similar pages
Shofar FTP Archives: orgs/american/ihr/rami-interviews-ihr… while we believe that all of this does is underscore just how weak, just how illusive evidence for any extermination program or policy really is. ...
www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/orgs/american/ft … rviews-ihr – 118k – Cached – Similar pages
Last edited by jorkel (2007-02-18 07:19:19)
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