Eggcorn Forum

The Double-Tongued Dictionary has a new entry that is a passable eggcorn. The entry reads:

The erratic, zigzagging flight of courting and songbird-evading fritillaries prompt some people to refer to them as “flitillaries.” Actually, the genus name probably derives from fritillus, a cylindrical cup used by the Romans to throw dice. This dice cup was decorated with white spots, as are many fritillary butterflies.

A glance at the OED suggests that the derivation of the word “fritillary” is not so straightforward as it seems. Possibly the Latin word was used to describe both dice cups and gameboards, in particular chess/checkerboards. And the first biological application was to plants, not to butterflies. In the sixteenth century “fritillaria” was applied by naturalists to certain spotted, liliaceous plants. The Linnean system eventually gave the name to a plant genus, of which we have a good example in our local Chocolate Lilies ( Fritillaria lanceolata. See a picture of one from a local park here. ). Butterflies with checkerboard patterns/prominent spots came to be called “fritillaries” in the nineteenth century.

I snapped a picture of one of our local “at risk” butterflies, a Zerene Fritillary, at Strathcona Park in 2007. You can see in this picture I took at the park

the spots and checkered patterns that characterize most fritillaries.

As the Double-Tongued poster points out, “flitillary” is an easy transition. At least two dozen unique web pages fall into this error.

Last edited by kem (2009-08-21 11:32:59)