Eggcorn Forum

Kem wondered recently whether the work of ferreting out eggcorns reduces the total population (link). The name ferret may ultimately come from their consumption of eggs, though as carnivores they wouldn’t care much for corn. Ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) are domesticated members of the family Mustelidae, which includes as close relatives the weasel and, in Europe, the polecat. The domestication event is lost in antiquity, so that it isn’t clear from which species they are ultimately derived. They worked for their keep, of course. Perhaps because of their efficiency in ferreting rabbits out of their burrows, or ridding the property of rats and mice, a collection of ferrets is a business. Ferrets were familiar in Greece and Rome before the cat was imported from North Africa.

Palmer’s etymology suggests that the name ferret is an eggcorn based on the introduction of the root wood from feral, as an interpretation of the word from the French language fuiret, which is now le furet. Since the days of Frank Zappa’s “Weasels ripped my flesh” album cover, I’ve had the same prejudice against the untamed nature of ferrets. Wikipedia explains that ferret comes from L. furittus, meaning “little thief”, perhaps because of a penchant for collecting shiny objects, perhaps because it steals the eggs of birds. Here is Palmer:

FERRET, which would more regularly be spelt furet (like the cognate word “furtive”), owes its present form probably to a mistaken idea that the original was ferette, a dim of fere, Lat. fera as if “the little wild animal.” Compare Fr. furet and furon, It. furetto, from Lat. fur, a thief, Languedoc furé, a mouse, just as “mouse” (Ger. maus, Lat. Gk. mus) is from Sansk mush, to steal.

So the genus name Mustela, for mouse (in reference to its shape, apparently), already makes reference to larceny. Unfamiliarity with the furry ferret has driven some to interpret the words ferret out as fare it out or fair it out. These are all audio transcription errors, which is good, because my interpretation of their imagery would be procrustean.

Tax filing advice (transcript):
If your income is real high, up in the $100,000, $200,000 range the IRS figures that the higher the income the more likely you are to have problems on your tax return, that they can fair it out. Also bare in mind that if they found a mistake they’re gonna be able to generate more tax from that mistake, than if they’re looking at some low income tax return.
(http://www.videojug.com/interview/gener … -questions)

Anti-terrorism initiative:
Well, I think, look, my position all along has been you’ve got to have the ability to wiretap known or suspected terrorists, and I am going to make sure that everything I do in this area is focused on anti terrorism and making sure that were being as tough as possible to fair it out any kind of plot or and kind of terrorist activity.
(http://www.threesources.com/archives/2006_10.html)
OK, this is a transcription error

TV transcript:
This bill gives the vigilance officer the power to ‘detect’, which means it goes considerably beyond, because it requires him to fare it out, as per the happenings, which are considered to be criminal under this law.
(http://batteredmale.blogspot.com/2006/0 … black.html)

National Captioning and Reporting Association question page:
Q: Fare it out, or fair it out?
Hi, None of the dictionary entries addresses this use of fair/fare as a verb: “So it’s the business agent’s responsibility to fair it out when that’s going on?”
A: Go with “ferret out.”

While touching upon the L. root fur, for “thief”, I want to sneak in a favourite legomenonce. A furuncle was originally a parasitic infestation on a vine, that stole nourishment from the plant. It has come to be used for a kind of human skin infection, or boil. Lovely. A Chinese apothecary site resected the word into a hirsute member of the extended family, as a fur uncle:

Chinese medicine site:
ten diseases with better acupuncture and moxibustion therapeutic results: wind rash (urticaria), fur uncle, epidemic mumps, breast abscess (acute mastitis), Intestinal abscess (appendicitis), Hemorrhoids, spa rain (Injury of soft tissues), localized nodular hyperplasia of soft tissues with eminence (ganglion), erysipelas, herpes zoster and etc.
(http://www.padring.com/forum/read.php?1,148)

Spa rain: imaginative!