Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Book review
Grace believes Sam (her wolf) is just a common run of the mile wolf she doesn’t realise he converts to human form when the weather heats up.
(http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80645277)
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not your everyday run of the mile image.
(http://www.wallpaperama.com/forums/appl … -t700.html)
Movie review
an unusual cocktail with a twist of lemon to produce just that twinge of ‘uwwww’ about it and to make us think of it as more than a run of the mile, umpteenth retelling of yet another vampire story.
(http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultf … viewid=614)
There were 60 unique ghits for “run of the mile” when I checked. Run of the mill dates to 1909 and refers to the undifferentiated or unsorted output of a textile mill, apparently, though it could be applied to any mill. My few hard months on the sorting line of a lumber mill come to mind. It means ordinary, undistinguished, of course. Run of the mile ... has got me stumped, though I’ve placed it here in Contributions.
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Yeah, “run of the mile†is a bit opaque, so a handful of authors (I’ve listed all but one that I found) may have eggcorned it into the more transparent “run of the mildâ€:
Most healthy individuals that I have personally seen and in general have experienced nothing more than run of the mild flu symptoms.
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/oct2009/day1027-3.htm
[Perhaps this writer was looking for a phrase like “the general run of mild flu symptoms,†but in any case it’s interesting that this is what they ended up with.]
It’s a lightly retouched version of a run of the mild Australian family sedan.
http://www.leftlanenews.com/slow-sales- … uture.html
These bible covers are not the run of the mild ones you buy at your local bible bookstore, but they are custom made for your bible.
http://weirdthinkers.wordpress.com/2008 … le-covers/
It’s not impossible that these are all WTFTs, but the very rare “run of the mild†does have a certain degree of eggcornicity.
Last edited by patschwieterman (2009-12-29 21:03:35)
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“Run of the mild.” That’s good. I assume that its infrequency has something to do with the differing qualities of the vowels in “mill” and “mild.” (German has the world “mild” with almost the same meaning as the English word, but with the German “i” sound, so an English speaker whose first language was German might hear a similar vowel sound in the two words.)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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