Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Understanding “board†for the last syllable of smorgasbord probably happened about as soon as SmörgÃ¥sbord became English. (The spelling smorgasboard gets about 145K ghits.) The notion of “food†of course is of course already associated with it, as in the phrase “room and boardâ€, and the notion of the board being the table on which food is spread out is pretty standard, I think.
We’ve mentioned a couple of times cases where a particular suffix (or prefix) is erroneously perceived; _ -ish_ is such a case here. It makes smorg into an adjective, or perhaps a noun, perhaps meaning something like “varied/varietyâ€.
[we offer a pool, board games, ping-pong:] a smorgishboard of fun out of the water ]
let me tell you that I have a smorgishboard of women any time I want them
White Squall Album – [ Traducir esta página ] This is the culmination of four years of playing together, and the CD is a delicious smorgishboard of our breadth and style. We recorded, mixed and mastered …
This place is a smorgishboard of kneeboarders, longboarders, beginners, groms and ocean goers of all sorts.
In addition, it’s kind of a French Impressionish smorgishboard, with Debussy’s “La Mer†and “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,†as well as …
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Another almost-historical eggcorn that has escaped notice.
When I was in boy scouts, we used to make something called “smores.” It was a toasted marshmallow and a square of chocolate sandwiched between a pair of graham crackers. They were called “smores” because kids who ate them wanted “s’more.”
Could people be hearing this word in SmörgÃ¥sbord? S’more-gish-board, in other words?
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Yeah, I remember smores. I wonder, too. But, (1) then you’re left with -gish to figure out the meaning of instead of smorg, and (2) a smorgasbord by definition has lots of things other than smores. If the etymology of s’more-s is active enough, I suppose it might work. But if it’s marshmallows and chocolate between graham crackers it seems less likely.
Which reminds me—gram crackers. Yeah, apparently it’s been reported.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I’m not sure I’d call “smorgishboard” an eggcorn—I doubt anyone has a sense of what “smorgish” might mean unless they’re already thinking of the concept denoted by “smorgasbord.” But in any case, there are a fair number of hits for “smorgous board” (which I also don’t consider an eggcorn).
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Neither smorgishboard or smorgous board are complete eggcorns, I will certainly agree. But in the substitution of _ -ish_ and _ -ous_ for the non-morphemic (in English) as , and in the substitution of board for bord , something eggcornish is happening: new structure/meaning/imagery, linked to specific morphemes, is being ascribed where neither the morphemes nor their meaning were previously.
Whatever, it’s an entertaining error, and borders on eggcornhood.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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We’re quibbling about what sense can be made of the first half of the substitution, but the board/bord switch makes it a clear eggcorn, in my opinion. I sure that the first time I heard this word I heard “board” and thought of “room and board” and “board laden with food.” I didn’t even notice it wasn’t spelled “board” until later in life.
“Board” has a close association with (an abundance of) food. I remember a restaurant in Toronto that was called “the groaning board.”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Let’s not overlook this older contribution:
“smorgous board” for “smorgasbord” by edblncrt Contribute! 0 2005-10-28 11:19:00 by edblncrt
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