Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I just noticed an article referring to religion in the public square, where the reporter was clearly referring to what I would have called the public sphere. A quick google found the two terms used in near-parity of frequency. Is this an eggcorn? (It’s certainly a logical expression, but it seems to meet eggcorn criteria to me.)
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I don’t think it’s an eggcorn, in part because the words are so far apart in sound.
If I had to stick my linguistically-naive neck out, I’d say that the use of ‘public square’ to stand for civic discourse as a whole is an instance of metonymy.Offline