Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
On NPR this afternoon I heard an interview with Melanie Driscoll of the National Audobon Society’s Louisiana program. You can hear it here (Click on “Listen to the storyâ€). At one minute into the the NPR program Driscoll says “‘Thin as a rail’ comes from the birds [Clapper Rails] weaving in an out of the grass without disturbing them.â€
Huh? Surely “thin as a rail†comes from the old word for a narrow bar, the word that evolved into the word “rail†in “railroad.†“Rail” derives from the Latin regula via Norman French.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Nice, an eggcorn caught in flight (or at least picked out from among the reeds), and especially one that would otherwise be hidden.
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Since the avian rails are a very skinny set of species, this false etymology has become part of the birder’s folklore and I’ve heard it several times.
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