Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Hello, all: First post here.
I grew up in Michigan, and my mother and siblings all say “simular” vs. “similar.” I believe this may be a regionalism. But it does make sense: Something similar simulates something else. Does this qualify as an eggcorn? I’m new enough to this that I’m not sure how to categorize it.
Thank you.
Feeling quite combobulated.
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The explanation sounds good to me. It would be nice if we could get a firsthand account from the utterer. Is your mom available for comment?
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I’ve heard similarity pronounced more like simularity, but I think the speaker would probably spell it correctly.
Library often sounds more like libry, February almost always like Febuary or Febry, is this not just a sloppy or regional pronunciation?
I like the implication of a similar simulation, but I don’t think this is an eggcorn for two reasons: – the substituted (“wrong”) word is not more comon than that it replaces – most eggcorns seem to move down in level of complexity or rarity of the words (in this case I would wager that most pepole would think simular is not even a real word, it is so obscure) – it is not written down, leaving it open to interpretation as pronunciation, not word-swapping
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will buy a ridiculous hat – Scott Adams (author of Dilbert)
Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day; set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life – Terry Pratchett
http://blog.meteorit.co.uk
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Next time I talk with my mom, I’ll ask her. I’m not even sure she is a aware that she pronounces it differently. All my siblings, most of whom have stayed in the area where we grew up, also say simular. (Nor was I until I went away to college and noticed my peers didn’t pronounce it that way.)
Here is an example of it I found on Google:
Amazon.com: see simular booksA community about see simular books. Tag and discover new products. Share your images and discuss your questions with see simular books experts.
www.amazon.com/tag/see%20simular%20books – 120k – Cached – Similar pages
AdamVero: I didn’t realize “simular” was an archaic word until I looked it up in an unabridged dictionary. It does seem that the meaning was different from the way my family uses it (first definition is as a noun: a person or thing that simulates; second is as an adjective: simulated, false, counterfeited.) The third definition, also an adjective comes closest to their usage, meaning imitative or simulative.
Last edited by JonW719 (2007-09-06 10:18:32)
Feeling quite combobulated.
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Looks like the linguists now have a name for this term: “esculators”
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Cool! I once got my shoelace caught in an “esculator.”
It’s nice to know our family pronunciation falls into a category. I think it dips its toe in the eggcorn pool, so to speak, because of its correlation to simulate or simulation, but I like that it has its own linguistic category.
Thanks, Jorkel.
Feeling quite combobulated.
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Aha!
So ‘authentification” would be an esculator, not an eggcorn.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will buy a ridiculous hat – Scott Adams (author of Dilbert)
Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day; set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life – Terry Pratchett
http://blog.meteorit.co.uk
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