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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2008-04-11 10:55:41

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Ms. in a bottle: MESSAGE/manuscript

Perhaps this isn’t so much an eggcorn query as a general question.

There’s a Poe work roughly titled “Manuscript Found in a Bottle,” where”Manuscript” is often (always?) abbreviated Ms. It seems to me that many people who see “Ms” mistake it for “message.” The expression “message in a bottle” is a rather in-the-language usage in current times, but I was wondering if anyone knows whether it might have originated with the Poe example. If so, what is the eggcorn implication? An eggcorn derived from a misreading rather than a mishearing?

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#2 2008-04-11 14:32:12

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: Ms. in a bottle: MESSAGE/manuscript

Personally, I’d be surprised if the phrase had its origin with the Poe story. But using books.google.com, I didn’t find a trustworthy citation before the 1880s—which certainly leaves plenty of room for Edgar Allan. I’ll try a search of older newspaper archives later if I have some time.

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