Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
While working for the local Sheriff’s Office, I noticed one of the dispatchers had sent me to an ‘illegal bomb fire” (bonfire), in the origional it was presented without a hyphen, which I think would make more sense, ‘bomb-fire”. Given that the dispatcher entering the report was a volunteer firefighter, I was not sure if the spelling was purely on purpose as a joke, but checking with the dispatcher later revelaed no attempt at humour. Since then I have heard it referrred to a number of times, Maine is a rural state with lots of small towns where kids and go somewhere out of the way, build a big bonfire, have a party, and no-one ever disturbs them. Some of theses parties can get out of hand, leading, I think, to the use of this tearm. So far no sightings in published media.
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Welcome to the Eggcorn forum haughey6.
The item you describe is indeed an eggcorn, and we’ve had it mentioned a few times before here:
bombfire for bonfire by booboo Contribute! 8 2007-10-31 15:45:45 by booboo
Which eggcorns to enter the Database next? by jorkel Contribute! 18 2007-06-25 17:07:56 by booboo
‘bombfire’ for ‘bonfire’ by Peter Forster Contribute! 1 2007-03-01 10:43:10 by Peter Forster
You can locate these by clicking on “Search” in the red menu bar above and entering the single word: bonfire.
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