Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
A nice one, I think. 937,000 g-hits. Clearly most are eggcorns, not puns or plays on words. Icicles are often very sharp, if rarely curved. An artist did post a photo of masses of clear ice in curvy shapes on a bush, which she called “ice sickles.” I’m sure there has been a lot of discussion of “homonymous” eggcorns like this (confession: I almost never read the discussions about what is, and what is not, an eggcorn. As a lawyer, I have a professional dislike of definitions.) It does seem to me that there is a stress difference, however slight, between “ice sickle” and “icicle.”
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Hi David. I posted this one a few years ago in the pre-forum comments space. We made almost the same remarks about it—great minds, etc. Since my original post is hard to find, I’ll squish it and post it again:
721 Commentary by pat schwieterman , 2005/10/17 at 2:26 am
“Ice sickle†for “icicle.†Almost 3500 ghits for this and its plural. Sickles are of course curved where icicles are usually straight, but it’s clear the writers are thinking of something long and sharp – and sometimes, potentially dangerous. Examples:
When my father finally returned with the fish wrapped in plastic bags there was sweat dripping from his forehead and off the tip of his nose like drops of frosty water from a pendulous ice sickle.
www.fairfieldreview.org/f…
Each blade of grass looks like an ice sickle as the frost still embraces it.
biro.bemidjistate.edu/cgi…
A scene that was cool in 1990 in Die Hard 2 reappears in this film, where someone uses a sharp ice sickle to pierce into the head through the eye.
www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/mem…
Last edited by patschwieterman (2009-02-01 23:19:18)
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A lawyer with a professional dislike for definitions! I would have thought you made your living off them. Or maybe you get sick of them from having to deal with them so much professionally?
.
(Seriously, if you have a long answer to this, and it is an interesting question, for me, maybe it better go on another thread.)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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