Eggcorn Forum

youngturck · 2008-06-11 00:28:55

Here’s another one from my Anthropology classes. While reading a draft today, a student consistently used the word deceased for diseased. I suppose this is a bit of a stretch but often if you are diseased, you will soon also be deceased.

DavidTuggy · 2008-06-14 18:47:03

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of this one working backwards, someone saying someone was diseased when actually they were deceased. But I don’t have it documented.

jorkel · 2008-06-14 20:05:06

Eggcorn was mentioned here before:

An Eggcorn for returning unwanted mail? by jorkel Contribute! 0 2006-08-14 08:22:41 by jorkel

Dixon Wragg · 2010-07-29 04:30:18

DavidTuggy wrote:

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of this one working backwards, someone saying someone was diseased when actually they were deceased. But I don’t have it documented.

Here’s your documentation, David; I just found this one in a Census Bureau document: “Both owners diseased for a long time and house has been vacant…” It took me awhile to realize that the writer meant “deceased”.

I’d say that “diseased’ and “deceased” could be a true eggcorn going in either direction because of the meaning connection between being sick and being dead. Similarly, I used to confuse “morbidity” with “mortality”.

DavidTuggy · 2010-07-29 13:25:23

Thanks, Dixon!

klakritz · 2010-07-29 20:59:41

This eggcorn, or its converse, first appears as entry #636 (dated 9/15/05) on the old comment thread:

diseased’ for ‘deceased.’ This is quite common. The phrase ‘recently diseased’ alone gets over 1,000 ghits. Examples:
She hears a moaning on the other end and a voice that sounds like her recently
diseased husband.
www.halloweenghoststories…
A landlord was cleaning out the apartment of a recently diseased man and decided
to pry open an old stove before throwing it away.
coincollector.org/archive…
He was prediseased by his son, Rodger in 1980; his parents, Orval and
Georgina …
ca.geocities.com/hasenpfl…

DavidTuggy · 2010-07-29 22:28:10

You guys are wonderful at documenting these things. I don’t think of these clever searches (I mean why not search for “recently diseased” —duh!—) and tend to give up after scanning a page or two of non-examples, but you pander to my laziness by checking it out! Thanks.

Eggcorn Forum

#1 2008-06-11 00:28:55

deceased for diseased

#2 2008-06-14 18:47:03

Re: deceased for diseased

#3 2008-06-14 20:05:06

Re: deceased for diseased

#4 2010-07-29 04:30:18

Re: deceased for diseased

#5 2010-07-29 13:25:23

Re: deceased for diseased

#6 2010-07-29 20:59:41

Re: deceased for diseased

#7 2010-07-29 22:28:10

Re: deceased for diseased

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