Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I’ve just registered to create this entry – I think it’s a goodie, and Google seems to agree with me.
However, I can’t work out how to “publish” my draft. I’ve followed the instructions in http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/contribute/how-to-post/ up to step 12. Step 13 tells me to click on Publish – where is that? There’s an option under Advanced which was on “Draft”, and could have been “Publish”. I tried changing that and then clicking on Save, but it still said I had a draft, and I haven’t been able to search for my entry.
Can I ask someone please to edit step 13 to make it clearer what needs to be done?
And is anyone able to find and rescue my entry? I’m kinda proud of it.
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Hi, and welcome to the Eggcorn website. The eggcorns in the Eggcorn Database had to be screened by the gatekeepers before finding a home there. (I think the gatekeepers are persons having some language pedigree, if you will). In the meantime, eggcorns are posted on this forum first to hash over the details.
I’m not personally connected with the running of this website, so I don’t know who to speak to regarding any change in the outdated instructions. Occasionally the site administrator will come around, and he can give you a more definitive answer.
I find 111,000 Google hits for “Visual clue,” so that’s a good sign. I’m not sure whether that is an eggcorn usage. Would this be an offshoot of the in-the-language usage “Visual cue?” A few examples could be helpful if you’d like to copy-and-paste the eggcorn usages you see in the Google search.
Last edited by jorkel (2007-04-27 07:22:08)
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Thanks for your reply.
Yes, there are many really good examples. I spent quite some time looking for good ones from good sources, and put them in the submission – can you not see them?
If not, then someone seriously needs to update your submission guidelines!
Andrew
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Hi Wainwra,
When the Eggcorns Database was first set up, it was conceived of as a Wiki-type site that would allow the independent posting of articles directly into the Database. Unfortunately, defining an eggcorn is a bit tricky, and quite a few of the early entries were not truly eggcorns. As the note at the bottom of the Contribute page mentions, the site owner disabled the Contribute function, and it’s unlikely that that will be enabled in the near future.
Is “visual clue” an eggcorn? The problem here is that there’s a good deal of semantic overlap between “clue” and “cue,” and a lot of uses of “visual clue” make at least as much sense as “cue” would in the same context. I think “visual clue” may qualify as what Jorkel has termed “a stealth eggcorn”—something of a gray area as far as the definition of eggcorn goes.
—Pat
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Okay, well I disagree – cue and clue are really quite different things. I think that any confusion may well come from the eggcorn itself.
I put quite a lot of detail in my entry – how can I get it back?
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Wainwra—I’m sorry to tell you that from my end of things, that contribution seems to be lost; I don’t have access to the inner workings of the Contribute page. You might try emailing the site owner, Chris Waigl, whose email address is listed there. She’s the only person likely to have the necessary access.
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For what it’s worth, wainwra, I think “visual clue” probably qualifies. I guess the trouble is that I could also see it being used properly. I mean, there must be such a thing as a “visual clue” in English. Police detectives can look, I suppose, for visual clues as well as – say – olfactory ones.
But in most cases, I’d say you’re right. When someone says “the picture on the website provides a visual clue as to where the underlying link will take you,” I shudder slightly. Which, in my opinion, is the best measure for an eggcorn. They should all give you that “hasn’t this person ever picked up a book and read it cover-to-cover!?!” feeling. Then, a second later, they give you the “my gosh – have I ever said that too?” feeling.
That’s really the brilliance of eggcorns to me. The well-read think them wrong, and most other folks have no clue (visual or otherwise). They’re a way for some of us to be happy we paid attention in English lit 102, even if the chemical engineering majors now make far more money than us having never needed the class in the first place, thank you very much.
Anyhow, given the number of misspellings and mispronunciations touted on this site as eggcorns, congratulations on finding what I believe is an actual one. I hope whoever administers this thing eventually posts it on the database.
Last edited by tannerpittman (2007-05-05 11:16:16)
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