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Chris -- 2018-04-11
In some dialects of English, “mired” and “marred” can sound fairly similar. And the phrase “mired in controversy/corruption/bureacracy/confusion, etc.” is often used in reference to something that has been marred or blemished by the situation in question. The perfectly legitimate phrase “marred by controversy” may also have some influence here, but the key to the eggcornicity of this reshaping is the presence of that “in” where we’d usually expect “by.” This seems to show up a lot in newspapers. Examples
The question of restitution is still one that is marred in controversy.
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2007/d … srstn.html
If baseball wants to stay marred in controversy and lose fan support because of the rampant steroid use, it should keep the current system of punishment.
http://media.www.californiaaggie.com/me … 6732.shtml
The acquisition of the Fire of Life/El Fuego De La Vida Collection by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center in 2003 was marred in controversy both attesting to gay Latino artists’ lack of access to grassroots and professional repositories as well as implicitly suggesting the political project behind his gift.
http://www.crge.umd.edu/events/2006-12-07.html
The recent string of indictments of Bush Administration officials has only proven what the majority of the country has long been speculating: the current Administration is marred in corruption.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=509554
As former IT editor Conor Brady points out in his book Up With the Times, the setting up of the two trusts were remarkably different—without going into detail here, the Guardian’s Scott Trust was set up in an act of selflessness while the Irish Times Trust was marred in controversy and pocket lining.
http://www.blurredkeys.com/2007/08/the-irish-times.html
The issues surrounding androgen replacement therapy in men with symptomatic late-onset hypogonadism has been marred in controversy even before the identification and synthesis of testosterone.
[From an abstract for the December, 2004 issue of Current Urology Reports; the article starts on p. 472.]
[For the trainspotters: The last two excerpts also have interesting examples of disagreement in number between subject and verb.]
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Good find.
You will also find a lot of ghits for “mired by controversy,” which may be driving under the influence of “marred by.”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Thanks, Kem—I didn’t think of going to look for complementary pair.
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Just ran across these, which basically tell the same story: a blend of mired in (something nasty) and marred by (something nasty), with nicely eggcornish results:
Kate Winslet: Working with Woody Allen and Roman Polanski is ‘extraordinary’¶ September 7, 2017 | 11:18am The actress gushes about working with the directors, who are both marred in scandal.
The other Democratic nominee, another African-American, was marred in scandal exposed by the running Independent whom was also smeared in their mud
Athletic programs are known to either value education or attempt to win at all costs and be marred in scandal. Penn State University […] has had its image tarnished by athletics, most notably its football program. As of late, Penn State University has been characterized by its tainted image …
A death marred in disgrace was still a death in service to the Empire.
Backwards:
the semi state-owned corporations which are also mired by scandal in manipulating employees’ voting preferences
Mired by scandal and controversy in later years, he died on July 12, 1804, in Greenwich Village
Even though you’ve been forsaken by heaven, you still have things you want to protect. You took the path mired by disgrace and not by choice. You are easy to understand, Bishamon. Because you’ve become just like me.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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