Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I wanted to start a new submission for this. I posted under “just” for “gist”, but I have never heard “just” used as a substitution. I hear “jest” used a handful of times every year. I believe it is because we have little encounter with “gist” except as in the phrase “the gist of it” (from a legal term in latin meaning “where the point lies”). That being the case, we substitute the next best thing we can find for it. I think “jest” comes about somehow from “surely you jest”. I’ve also heard gist pronounced with a hard “g”, as in “grist”. I think this comes from encountering the written “gist” and using a word like “grist” as a reference. Either way, I think it qualifies as an eggcorn. The funny thing here is (no pun intended), “the jest of it” implies almost the opposite of “the gist of it”. “Gist” refers to the serious import of the matter, whereas “jest” would seem to make fun of the same. Oddly, when I hear the misuse of the phrase, it is still used to convey its original meaning. Perhaps “jest” is thought of as being a cynical or clever way of refering to the boss’ new idea,
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Nice observations. “The jest of it” got 11,600 ghits (vs. 597,000 ghits for “the gist of it.”)
Now whats needed is some examples…
Arrow In The Head’s movie review of The Abandoned: Anastasia Hille …I got the jest of it but when looking back at it, some things didn’t hold up and some plot holes seem to surface. Finally the flick did suffer from the not …
www.joblo.com/arrow/reviews.php?id=1126 – 57k – Cached – Similar pages
TanksHere in a sense was the jest of it. Across the water they bothered about Lenin and the Maximalists, the Piave and the Italian front. ...
www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Cam … rai_01.htm – 14k – Cached – Similar pages
Could Yoy Do It With Hosta Seeds? – Hosta Forum – GardenWebI’ve left out most of the article but the jest of it was to do this in the winter and let nature do the rest. Come spring the seeds will sprout and you have …
forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hosta/msg0311164210160.html?8 – 47k – Cached – Similar pages
Pyramid… looking out of nowhere) But the sounds of the crowds when they come to see me now, is not the same And the jest of it all is I can’t recall my name But …
www.roadkill.com/APP/lyrics/Pyramid.html – 8k – Cached – Similar pages
Life is full of questionsWell that’s the jest of it for now. If you have any questions about me please feel free to contact me at teresa_l_m@comcast.net …
www.robertmorris.edu/profiles/tmontgome … /index.cfm – 17k – Cached – Similar pages
Mailing list archivesSince you’ve gone thru Richard’s tutorial by now, I’m sure you get the jest of it :) > > > An application is merely a bunch of > >components offerring and …
mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/ws-wsif-user/200401.mbox/%3C200401191056.53005.eric.swindell@att.net%3E – 8k – Cached – Similar pages
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