Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I stumbled across this substitution, and a google search ( http://www.google.com/search?q=“hill+of+beams” ) shows more results than I thought it would. It is possible some are simple typos, but I doubt the majority are.
Now, whether this is really an eggcorn is questionable in my mind – I think I’ve heard hill of corn and other substitutions, and so there is not really a novel literal interpretation at work here.
The exception I can see is this link about construction, where the topic actually could entail discussion of beams:
http://www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum/ … 638⪡
“Deep down I figured it didn’t add up to a hill of beams but I still like to see something more substantial like hangers or a ledger strip.
If you look at the first pick, third rafter to the right (or first rafter on the right if you want to look at it that way) you’ll see the tail of the 2×12 has split off. I commondly find cracks/splits at these tails. ”
I guess it could be an attempt at humor, but I really doubt it… and I suppose it really is no different that the other examples:
From the Google search results
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Dog Days of Summer: Protecting Man’s Best Friend | Now THAT’S …
The little crack people leave open in a car window doesn’t amount to a hill of beams when the sun’s bright rays beat down on the metal of the vehicle. ...
nowthatsgreatinfo.com/dog-days-of-summer/ – Cached
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Thieves Flood Victim’s Phone With Calls to Loot Bank Accounts …
May 12, 2010 … sorely disappointed — while it would be devastating to me personally, there’s not enough there to make a hill of beams to these crooks. ...
www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/telephony-dos/ – Cached
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FindNextFile() problem – C++
10 posts – 5 authors – Last post: Feb 13, 2007
Because in such a trivial program it doesn’t make a hill of beams which way its coded. Creating another process is also trivial in most of …
www.daniweb.com › ... › Software Development › C++ – Cached – Similar
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I only see about 10 examples on the net of “hill of beams” in place of “hill of beans.” Given the nearness of “m” and “n” on the keyboard, and the lack of a compelling semantic reason for the switch, I’d hesitate to give it full eggcorn status. It looks more like one of Pat’s WTF typos.
The first example, the one about the dog in car, may be an intentional pun.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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On beyond bean hills. A “hell of beans” is sometimes understood as “not a hell of a lot”; other times I wonder if it’s blended somehow with being “full of beans”. A vegetarian inferno.
IT administrator blog
I am not trying to upset anyone going to school here but being book smart doesn’t make a whole hill of beings.
[about 3 legit hits]
NASA incompetence rant
Remember the Y2K scare? It turned out to be nothing but a hell of beans.
[about 30 legit hits]
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Another beam < bean one: a niece writes:
I just had a friend mention that you have to take the bean out of your own eye before looking at the speck in somebody else’s.
It works pretty well for me. Jesus’ original wording always seemed a bit anomalous. Well, he was obviously exaggerating, because you can’t even begin to fit a beam into your eye, much less take it out once it’s there. But a bean is a much less hyper hyperbole, and is the sort of thing that just might fall into your eye, under the right circumstances. It’d still make the same point to talk about it.
Re a hill of beings , the old malapropism about human beans , which a number of people testify they thought was the phrase, comes to mind. It would be a dandy eggcorn if it made sense.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2020-09-24 21:10:21)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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The KJV translation with “mote” and “beam” paired has always seemed awkward. For the modern person, a mote is something that floats in a beam of light.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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