Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
First spotted it as dum witted, and there are about 250 google hits for that, though they could be typos.
About 750 google hits for dumb-witted, which is obviously not a typo. I think the thought process behind the change of imagery in this one is pretty obvious.
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This is for me a typical example of a “yes, but …” suggestion.
“Dum-witted” is very likely the result of hitting the U key, which is right next to the I key—a typo, as you said.
“Dumb-witted” is clearly a re-shaping of some sort, but not born out of not parsing “dim-witted” correctly. It’s more alike to errors children make: “Dumb-witted” is the first thing they may latch on to that makes sense. But so would “dim-witted”.
I believe that for a real eggcorn there needs to be a certain measure of difficulty making sense of the original form at all.
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I think it’s sort of hard to understand how someone’s wits could be DIM.
Lights are dim.
Brains are dumb.
I know “dim” is opposite of “bright,” and we do speak of people of intelligence being “bright.”
But we don’t ever say “bright witted.”
We do speak of those of lesser-intelligence being “dim,” but not very often.
I think this is a real eggcorn. I don’t think you need any phenomenal DIFFICULTY w/ the original term—just that the eggcorn-er has switched imagery.
If we ever know what’s going on in their minds at all…
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