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Chris -- 2018-04-11
A more graphic way of expressing indifference to consequences, it occurs several hundred times. Examples:
Sure, many of us live our lives totally headless of the morals professed by the catholic church, but this doesn’t seem like such a bad little shift of focus .
www.grist.org/news/2008/03/10/sins/index.html
Recent Attacks upon the Supreme Court of the United States… stands beyond the reach of criticism; but these attacks have been so reck- less in their abuse, so headless of the value of judicial review, ...
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2984(195724)26%3A1%3C56%3ARAUTSC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E
She followed at a trot, laughing as she ran, headless of the direction.
www.isabokelly.com/mybooks/fantasy/ds-ex.html
He also says what translates as: “They know only the outside appearance of the life of the world and they are headless of the Hereafter.â€
www.alminbar.com/khutbaheng/2108.htm
Book two, “The Coffee Shop of the Living Deadâ€, starts with Escapade just once letting go and having fun headless of the consequences, ...
www.blogsnh.com/drupal/blog_entry/ken_b … nt_want_to
Eeggs.comsarah writes: the quote on Pinkerton means “everywhere in the world the wandering Yankee has a good time and trades headless of the danger …
www.eeggs.com/items/4050.html
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‘Heedless’ for ‘headless’ can work equally well – “heedless chicken” yields 43 ghits, some written in Scots or Geordie dialects in which ‘head’ is pronounced ‘heed’ anyway… eg
i wisny runnin boot like a wee heedless chicken the nnyt i wisny even drinkin did youu see aww the fights the nyt i missed thum god dammit :L wb xxxxx …
skin.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3764501363
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As Peter points out, head and heed are pronounced alike in some dialects. I wonder if some people have heard, but not seen, heedless and assumed it is spelled headless? or seen headless and assumed it was pronounced heedless? or some other combination?
On the other hand, the “paying no attention” sense of heedless would only have to be slightly strengthened to “brainless; without thought,” which is one sense of headless.
The substitution is therefore arguably spelling-related, and arguably eggcornish. There is probably a bit of both in the examples out there.
[Edit: When I refer to people assuming heedless is spelled headless, I don’t intend only speakers of Scots. The characters <ea> can be pronounced in more than one way in most dialects of English: bead/bread, heat/heather etc.]
Last edited by nilep (2008-04-15 16:47:09)
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