Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
As in “appeasing to the eye”(1140 hits) vs “appealing to the eye”(123,000 hits)
Examples:
With a little decoration it can look appeasing to the eye and be an excellent way to watch the beauty of hummingbirds. ...
ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Hummingbird-Feeder&id=508410
Were trying to do stuff that makes the place more appeasing to the eye, I’m hoping to be able to put the place on the market next spring. ...
www.43things.com/things/view/113053 – 25k
Christopher from Freeport, IL | December 11 2006; “The outside of the hotel is not appeasing to the eye, the rooms need some updating and need new beds. ...
travela.priceline.com/hotel/overview-United_States_Iowa_Bettendorf_Holiday_Inn_Bettendorf-53588.html – 57k
If your eyes are offended by garishness or fashion faux pas, perhaps a design expert could work their artistic voodoo to appease them!- at least that’s the imagery I’m speculating is occurring with this eggcorn submission observed by my daughter. The funny thing about this one is that knowledge of the meaning of the word “appeasing” would seem to be less prevalent than knowledge of the meaning of the word “appeasing”. Contextually, appeasing works to a great extent, although the implication is that the eyes are “owed” something, vs “appealing” which implies that the eyes are “rewarded” with something pleasant that did not exist previously.
My wife thinks the eggcorn could be coming from another route: subliminal word transfer(need your opinion here, Jorkel!). That is, perhaps they are subliminally combining “appealing” and “pleasing”.
Offline
The explanation sounds right on the mark so far, but I’m trying to see how the usage fits into different possible categories and scenarios. So, let me think out loud here…
Appeasing has three closely related meanings: Calm, allay, and pacify/conciliate. I think we’re mainly looking at the calming sense: to bring to a state of peace. Perhaps I’ll say more on this later.
The observation that “appeasing” might be a blend of “appealing” and “pleasing” is brilliant. If this were intentional, I guess we’d call it a portmanteau word—which just happens to be the same as a real word in this case. But it’s kind of unlikely that someone would intentionally blend two words only to create a third which is exactly the same as a well-established word …and likely to be confused with it at that. Where’s the utility in that?
So, perhaps this blend is unintentional …indeed, subliminal as you suggest. (Boy am I big on subliminal language usage… You could even toss in a subliminal contribution of something being “easy on the eyes” if you wanted). Now, the person—who is groping for the right word—comes upon “appeasing” and equates it with a satisfaction of sorts. However, the “owed” vs. “rewarded” problem soon arises, so the usage might be classified as a malapropism because the utterer doesn’t fully understand the meaning of “appease” and isn’t using it properly.
But now suppose the person expects to be offended by something, but is pleasantly surprised, then a reward is present and the usage just might work as an eggcorn. I think this is where you started your analysis. (It’s also helpful that the construction is virtually idiomatic, which “appealing to the eye” is—so that the alternative might raise eyebrows). The critical test of this would be in the context clues of the examples.
Alas, I feel I’ve made this a bit contrived. (We’re back to Peter Forster’s principle that eggcorn hunters are masters of self-delusion). But I’ll tell you one thing: 1140 Google hits is no minor find. So, I’ll leave it here and maybe someone else can contribute a more pithy, decisive observation.
Last edited by jorkel (2007-07-07 16:53:37)
Offline