Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are temporarily closed as we're receiving a steady stream of registration spam.
Anyone who wishes to register, please email me at chris dot waigl at gmail dot com with the desired username and a valid email address, and I will register you manually.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2011-03-08
For the second time today I discover my own mistake.
“Dowsing for water” is the mystical practice of attempting to divine an underground source of water by the use of a pendulum or stick, coupled with psychic powers. I always thought it was “dousing for water”: plunging into the element?
A Google search reveals I’m not the only one with this mistake, one site went as far as to try to explain the mistaken etymology:“Water witching… Another term used is dousing for water. It comes from douse which means to place into water.”
http://www.open.org/mrdsnts/theo/d03850.htm
About 170 hits on Google for “dousing for water” as opposed to 660 for “dowsing for water”.
Offline