Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2011-03-08
Here’s a fun one that’s seasonally appropriate:
...my friend Timmy used this expression to describe the auto mechanic in Virginia who had cluelessly mis-managed the repair of Timmy’s car. Timmy lives in SF Ca. now, where the mechanics are more urbane and adept…I guess.
”...yeah, he was one of those country pumpkins in bib-overalls with some bad teeth missing and a rag hanging out of his pocket…’y’all this and y’all that’, like he totally screwed-up the Lexus.”
Jay
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This one has some potential as an eggcorn if we could elucidate the imagery a bit. The transition from a less familiar word (bumpkin) to a more familiar word (pumpkin) is in the right direction. Now we have to figure out what is envisioned with the word pumpkin.
First, it helps that pumpkins are associated with the country more than the city, so that aids the word pairing. Also, we are all familiar with carving pumpkins and emptying out the innards—which look a lot of mush. Perhaps that embodies the notion of someone with no solid substance for brains. But, that’s the best I can do for guesswork.
Next, since we do have access to the utterer of the expression, we can always ask go to the source for his own explanation of the imagery. That type of testimony tends to provide the strongest legitimacy for potential eggcorns.
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