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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I realized recently that the people around me talk about “catching a ride” with someone to an event, yet I’ve read enough old fiction (mostly British) to suspect that the original phrase was to “cadge a ride”.
cadge:
–verb (used with object)
1. to obtain by imposing on another’s generosity or friendship.
2. to borrow without intent to repay.
3. to beg or obtain by begging.
–verb (used without object)
4. to ask, expect, or encourage another person to pay for or provide one’s drinks, meals, etc.
5. to beg.
I still get 1,090 hits on google for “cadge a ride”, but “catch a ride” returns 229,000. It seems like an eggcorn to me, since catching a ride provides a perfectly valid mental image…
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I’m not sure this is an eggcorn; I think they’re just alternate ways of saying “get a ride from someone else.”
I have used both, and for me the mental meaning is different. Of course, I know the word “cadge,” but when I ask someone if I can catch a ride with them (or offering that perhaps they could catch a ride with me), I’m asking usually about logistics, without any thought that I’m actually imposing (nor are they). Whereas if I’m jocularly thinking that I’m being sneaky, or if I’m vaguely thinking I’m imposing, I’ll chose “cadge.”
Maybe it started as an eggcorn for “cadge”?
But I don’t think so. “Catch” has lots of applicable meanings:
-intercept
to capture or seize
-to take or entagle as if in a snare
-GET (ever useful)
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I agree, no eggcorn. I catch a [ride on a] bus by paying a fare, whereas I cadge a lift off friend by cajoling them to give it to me.
Since cadge has the same meaning when referring to rides, sweets, cigarettes etc, and catch has the same meaning for catching a bus, plane, ride, lift I think they are just different meanings, one of which has extra information about the means of getting the ride through imposing on generosity.
You might equally catch or cadge a lift/ride but would never cadge a bus (unless you wanted an actual bus of your own, and knew someone who had one and owed you a favour)
Last edited by AdamVero (2007-09-06 09:41:03)
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http://blog.meteorit.co.uk
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Yes, I suppose that makes sense… I’ve just heard people use “catch” where “cadge” would be more appropriate. :)
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I honestly never have heard the word “cadge.” I’ve always heard “catch” a ride, or, more colloquially, “bum” a ride, which seems to be closer to the meaning of cadge. I have lived in the Midwest and now in Colorado. If I have ever heard someone say “cadge,” I’m not aware of it. Is it more common in other regions of the US, or perhaps in Britain?
Feeling quite combobulated.
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