Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
[They thought] they could war off the enemy
Amulets were worn around the neck to war off the evil eye and to protect from fever and plague.
At one time, the Mezuzah was confounded with charms used to war off the evil spirits, as noted in the Talmud.
the stag is so laid out as to add to the whole relief a phallic emblem, and so war off the evil eye,
Incense, prepared specially. for the rit-. ual, . was burned to war off the evil. spirits. and to. protect. mother and
He walked into the room steadily, putting the medallion on as if it it were an amulet to war off evil—and indeed, that’s what it was, to him,
They also have an occult specialst basically a wiccan to preforms rituals using Angelic names of Michael, Gabriel and others to war off evil spirits.
Warding was defending in warfare, so the usages fit pretty well with the idea of fighting something off, waging war in such a way that evil is kept off.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-10-08 08:07:15)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Good one.
There are also about a dozen examples out there of “wart off” in place of “ward off.” Not so good as “war off.” But there is some eggcorn potential. Here are two examples:
Comment on a forum about Intenet dating: “I thought this would for sure wart off the same men” (http://astrology.yahoo.com/channel/sex/ … re-249481/)
An online prayer: “I pray that you will give me more power from above to wart off the devil and his demons.” (http://www.ourchurch.com/view/?pageID=70088)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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It’s a great find if it’s truly an eggcorn, but it’s hard to be sure that many of these aren’t examples of single-letter omission. Take this one for instance:
This smearing has been interpreted as apotropaic, that is to say, intended to war off evil spirits. The biblical story has even been rewritten with Yahweh Himself as the demonic spirit to be warded off… .
http://www.british-israel-world-fed.ca/Brit145.html
In that case, “war off” in the first sentence looks like a simple typo—otherwise, I would have expected the participle in the second sentence to be “warred.”
Maybe the thing to do would be to search for “warred off.” But I really gotta sleep….
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The first example was spoken, but of course there too it could be omission of a consonant (just not a letter) or a failure to hear it.
There are some pretty clear examples of “warred off†(other than the ones that are apparently misspellings of ward rather than of warded.)
I was surprised at the time aswell…but like he said, he did come back, time and time again, and each time, I warred him off with one of my arrows.
The staff has led sheep and warred off the various plunderers of the sheep. God asks Moses to throw down his staff,
The first example here (and maybe some others) could be < “warned off†.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-10-08 11:11:26)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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kem wrote:
Good one. ¶ There are also about a dozen examples out there of “wart off” in place of “ward off.” Not so good as “war off.” But there is some eggcorn potential. Here are two examples:
What imagery would you suppose, if you were to make a case for eggcornosity here, Kem? Threatening to give the enemy/evil-to-be-averted warts? Grossing him/it out with your own warts?
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-10-08 10:06:42)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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DavidTuggy wrote:
What imagery would you suppose, if you were to make a case for eggcornosity here, Kem? Threatening the enemy/evil to be averted with warts? Grossing him/it out with your own warts?
In Kem’s first example, putting someone off with unattractive points—metaphorical ‘warts’—may well be at work. Fuller context:
but what I quickly discovered, most everyone thinks they are intelligent, handsome, fun, talented, high-energy, witty, honest, and it goes on and on….what I began to do then was articulate exactly what I am looking for in a man….okay i thought I’d get a little better results of the type of men responding…..think again, the same idiots responded. Lastly I stated I am a Christian Women in need of a friend first, and maybe more….again I thought this would for sure wart off the same men…..GUESS what? Didn’t matter, what I said,
I don’t think a self-described Christian Women [sic] would see her own Christian faith as a “wart”, but I do think that there might be some echo of warts-and-all here.
I also think that David’s war off / warred off is a nice example, notwithstanding that some percentage of them may be letter omissions or consonant weakening. The existence of the regular past tense suggests that some are legit reshapings.
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