Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Just ran across:
“This area wasn’t mapped very well back in the day. Early explorers didn’t have it down to pat. So, unfortunately they came to grief on the reef,†NOAA archaeologist Tane Casserley said.
Found a few others:
I’ve pretty much got it down to pat, but remain overly suspicious of ever-changing ingredients. Sometimes I survive for days on Soy-Rice milk alone.
I think I have pretty much got it down to pat and dare say I that it tasted even better than the original.
I had many many many tries recorded on my phone (which sounded really erks) but finally got it down to pat, immediately called Daren
A high proportion of the hits that I found were, for some reason, on sites or posts having to do with cookery. Maybe you get your lump of dough to the point where you give it the final pat? Naah.
Anyhow, I think it’s a blend from “get it down pat” and “get it down to a science/a routine/brass tacks/etc.”. The idea of getting something “down” meaning getting it under control shows up in a whole lot of clichés/complex verbs, and even in “get it down pat”, pat seems to be related to, if not actually designating, a state of satisfactory ease or control. There’s something close to eggcorning going on here.
If we all could perform the process of eggcorn analysis as skillfully and easily as Pat does, I guess that’s where we’d have it.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-29 12:25:24)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Where else do we use “pat� You can have something pat as well as having it down pat. You can give a pat answer (rote, routine, glib), where it is pretty negative. A pat hand in cards—is that where it all comes from? Am. Heritage dictionary says that is a poker hand so strong as to be unlikely to be improved by drawing other cards—so you just pat it instead of adding another card to it?
Another rabbit trail: I wondered if “pat†could be a typo for “parâ€: the two letters are side-by-side same-finger letters on a qwerty keyboard. “Par†is a weird one—we say up to par meaning up to snuff, so the “down to” would be odd. There is serious communication bypass that happens with the phrases “above par” and especially “below par”—if I’m feeling below par that’s not good, but if I (or more realistically, Tiger Woods—I don’t even play golf, much less play it well) scores below par, that’s very good. I suppose having something down to par might mean you consistently do it well.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-29 19:59:42)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Oxford English Dictionary:
pat, adv._1 and _adj.
A. adv.1 Usu. as complement of the verb.
1. In a manner that exactly fits the purpose or occasion; appositely, opportunely, readily, promptly.
1578 G. WHETSTONE Promos & Cassandra: 1st Pt. IV. vi, I chaunst to light on one, Hyt me as pat as a pudding Pope Ione. 1589 ‘C. CURRY-KNAVE’ Almond for Parrat 6 b, Haue not I hit your meaning patte in this comparison? a1616 SHAKESPEARE Hamlet (1623) III. iii. 73 Now I might do it pat, now he is praying. 1666 S. PEPYS Diary 20 Feb. (1972) VII. 49, I came just pat to be a godfather. 1709 T. D’URFEY Mod. Prophets I. i. 7 And this and that and t’other, all things went so pat methought all the rest of the Day.
[others omitted]
1988 New Yorker 25 Apr. 64/2 His answer comes pat.
2. to have (a story, routine, etc.) (off, down) pat: to be able to recite or perform readily and faultlessly from memory; (also, depreciatively) to repeat glibly, to parrot.
1776 J. LEACOCK Fall Of Brit. Tyranny IV. vi. 50 It’s a pity but you were a bishop, you have the scriptures so pat. 1795 H. COWLEY Town Before You Pref. p. xiii, I’ll tell a story—and I have one pat.
[others omitted]
2002 Guardian 28 June (Friday Rev. section) 17/3 (The song shows) the woozy, gentle melodicism that Morcheeba now have down pat.
B. adj.
[much additional material omitted, CDN]
stand, v.
14. Chiefly U.S. to stand pat: (a) [Cf. prec. and pat hand s.v. PAT adv. and a. 3b.] In Poker, to play, or declare one’s intention of playing, one’s hand just as it has been dealt, without drawing other cards. (b) transf. To adhere to an existing state of things or to an avowed policy (esp. a high tariff), refusing to consider proposals for change or reform. Hence stand-pat n. and a.; stand-patter, stand-pattism.
1882 Poker; how to play it 12 The gentleman..failed to better his hand. The other stood pat. 1890 Stock Grower & Farmer 29 Mar. 7/1 When it came to them two accomplishments he stood pat.
Oddly, there is no “PAT adv. and a. 3b.” I suppose that’s down to an editing lag; they probably meant this:
SPECIAL USES
pat hand n. Poker a hand which is of sufficient value to play as it is dealt, without needing to draw from the pack; also fig. (chiefly U.S.).
1865 G. M. EVANS How Gamblers Win 43 As a general thing, ‘*pat hands’, that is, hands which fall complete without drawing (as flushes, fulls, or four of a kind)—should be avoided, as they tend to excite suspicion. [etc., CDN]
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