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#1 2010-02-28 17:33:56

klakritz
Eggcornista
From: Winchester Massachusetts
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 674

'spammer in the works' for 'spanner in the works'

‘Spanner’ for ‘wrench’ is, I think, primarily British, so the idiom ‘spanner in the works,’ to denote sabotage, is a bit obscure in my neighborhood. The newer phrase is used fairly often, mostly to describe real problems with spam and its originators, and it’s sometimes hard to know whether the influence of the older phrase is conscious or not. I wouldn’t call this kind of use an eggcorn.

But sometimes the newer phrase is used with the meaning of the older phrase, and without any connection to spam or the internet. And these latter uses do seem eggcornic:

Later that afternoon, FBI director Robert Mueller threw another spammer in the works when he warned that transporting Gitmo’s denizens to U.S. prisons could …
www.bobzilla.tv/obamaabomination/tortureorterror.html

The human mind remains the “ultimate resource”, but politics always throws a spammer in the works.
jehasnail.blogspot.com/2008/03/anschlu-delayed.html

Another spammer in the works for the Shinners was how to stitch the south and the north together assuming the British government withdrew …
sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/a…/P100/

Perhaps revelations that the system allowed multiple voting threw a wet spammer in the works.
thegamesgonecrazy.blogspot.com/.../hammersfan-survey-results-delayed.html

The best advise is probably to approach each project on it’s own merits, assume that some one is going to throw a spammer in the works at some stage and …
turboseoconsulting.com/blog/1/projects/

In the movie, the US army air force, twice manages to put spammer in the works for our heroes.
mattiknife.wordpress.com/

Last edited by klakritz (2010-02-28 20:31:52)

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#2 2010-02-28 19:10:41

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: 'spammer in the works' for 'spanner in the works'

Great eggcorn. You can see the mechanism behind the eggcorn at work. Language moves on, brings in a new word, speakers scratch their heads over an old word, sounds line up quietly on the dais, the curtain rises, and wallah, an eggcorn appears.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#3 2010-03-04 09:29:02

klakritz
Eggcornista
From: Winchester Massachusetts
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 674

Re: 'spammer in the works' for 'spanner in the works'

‘Spaniel in the works’ seems like a reach, but it occasionally shows up as well:

Just to throw a spaniel in the works – Who would rather pay to watch half a dozen good channels on HDTV than the shedloads of rubbish that’s on the Freeview …
www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread. … 83&page…

... Sorry to throw a spaniel in the works people but what has this case in Durham got to do with gay men? Paedophiliia is something completely …
atangledweb.squarespace.com/.../sex-omission-and-protecting-heinous-crime-in-the-name-of-pol.html

Thanks Lisa Unfortunately, being crap city-types neither me nor Mrs Tenic drive, so that rather puts a spaniel in the works.
66.39.159.169/talk/viewtopic.php?t=6141&start=0&sid…

Stacey and Jean appear to have reached a turning point in their relationship, but is Callum about to throw a spaniel in the works?
www.heraldscotland.com/today-s-picks-1.904295

Yeah, just when you think everything’s going OK something throws a spaniel in the works. Professor Hawking, John L*slie, Phil Neville, ...
www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?p…

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#4 2010-03-04 12:07:10

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: 'spammer in the works' for 'spanner in the works'

And there was our earlier discussion of spaniard in the works.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#5 2010-03-04 14:26:54

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: 'spammer in the works' for 'spanner in the works'

From a spaniel to a monkey in the wrench works isn’t too great a jump. (A Spaniard is another order of evolution.)

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2010-03-04 14:27:39)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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