Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I didn’t want to sully Pat’s contribution on “Advent reef”, which is becoming a holiday classic in its own right (link and comment). But this entry is a response to his, presenting a variation to back up the wreath / reef substitution, as well as the return tripper, coral wreath. This shows up as something bestowed on Greek athletes, as well forming as a ring around islands.
J. Amer. Geog. Soc. N.Y., vol. 13, 1881
we watched the smoke reefs whirling away into space from the very crater of the cone
(http://books.google.ca/books?id=dZ8BAAA … 22&f=false)
Travel guide Slovakia
Like every weekend, the Barok is full of sweating, dancing people, their eyes stinging from the reefs of smoke.
(http://travel.spectator.sk/articles/146 … bratislava)
.
Hmm, wait a sec, maybe there were smoking reefs in that club.
From an article about Advent
In ancient Greece, a coral wreath was awarded to victors in sporting events
(http://www.novareinna.com/festive/advent.html)
Edit: I removed the examples I had for “coral wreath” in reference to a reef; they looked intentional.
Last edited by David Bird (2009-11-30 23:30:14)
Offline
“Reefs of smoke” is kind of poetic—can’t you just see those great banks of the stuff, almost like some undersea formation?
Offline
“Reefs of smoke” might even have the potential to become sort of a post-eggcorn, eventually superseding “wreaths of smoke,” though it has a long, long way to go.
“Free reign” is already neck-and-neck with “free rein,” and will probably pull ahead as the horse-and-buggy days fade further into the past. I even saw it used a couple of years ago in Harvard Magazine! I’d say it’s a definite post-eggcorn-in-the-making.
Our language is already full of post-eggcorns and fossilized malapropisms, which have become so thoroughly accepted that the only one I can think of offhand is “avocado” (which probably should mean “lawyer,” since it apparently comes from Spanish, where avocado is “aguacate” and lawyer is “abogado”). Surely there is already a term for this phenomenon—can someone tell me what it is?
Offline
Aguacate is in turn somewhat eggcornish: many Spanish speakers think water ( agua ) is involved in its meaning, though it comes from Nahuatl _Äwakatl_ and in that language has nothing particular (that I know of)* to do with water.
*(I’ve worked with a couple of modern variants of Nahuatl for pushing 40 years. Although _Ä_ is the stem for ‘water’, and it could be part of the stem, speakers I have asked do not seem to construe ‘water’ as any part of the meaning, and do not have a meaning for waka(tl) . However, with etymologies I’m always in doubt.)
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-12-02 13:34:25)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline
Surely there is already a term for [post-eggcorns and fossilized malapropisms]—can someone tell me what it is?
English.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
Offline