Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Stopping to conquer makes as much or as little sense as stooping to conquer, but it isn’t the title of the play:
Amorous intrigue and mistaken identity wreak hilarious havoc in Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stops to Conquer on stage at du Maurier Theatre Centre …
www.torontostage.com/reviews/20qsPettle.html
Books & Collectibles online bookstore and search engine …
PENGUIN Middlesex UK 1986 Reprint Octavo Size Very Good condition 414 PAGES Volpone The Way of the World She Stops to Conquer and The Schoool For Scandals …
www.booksandcollectibles.com.au/bsearch … MORRELL+J+(ED)&title=FOUR…
SHE STOPS TO CONQUER by Oliver Goldsmith. Directed by James Bohnen.
www.courttheatre.org/home/vision/Press/archive.shtml
Recent productions include ‘She Stops to Conquer’ ‘Hobson’s Choice’, ‘The Winslow Boy’ and ...
somersetgateway.somerset.gov.uk/live/organisations/results.jsp?general=_firstchar%3Ak&category…5&defaultor…a…
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“She stops to conquer” should be in your “best of 2008” list.
While we are on Goldsmith – I see the Oxfam shop is selling a copy of “The Victor of Wakefield.” (http://www.oxfamhaiti.org/shop/ProductD … uct=100332). I suppose the switch fits. The poor vicar was a victor in the end.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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It’s a nice one, in many ways, but I wonder.
The /u/ to /a/ switch is a pretty big one for a hearing mistake. It’s a pretty natural omission (degemination) typo. Do you have evidence that (a) it’s standard for anybody, and (less importantly) (b) that anybody pronounces it that way?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Yeah, I wondered about that as well. I rushed to the defense of Ken’s “tired and true” post, so that makes me feel a little less caddish in worrying along with DT that one-letter-omission drops are so common that they might explain most examples of this. On the other hand, that somewhat odd-sounding use of “stoops” does feel ripe for eggcorning to me, and “stops” has a certain rightness about it. I guess I’m hoping it’s an eggcorn, but I feel there are some good alternate explanations, too.
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