Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Spotted here: http://www.livejournal.com/community/li … 10121.html
In the context “without a bye or leave”; I only knew the form “without so much as a by-your-leave” (that is, without asking to do something “by your leave” or with your permission).
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Just ran across this in a less phonologically similar form: I’d still rank both as potentially good eggcorns. The meaning (assuming that perpetrators construe things so) is presumably something like “without (so much as) a goodbye (n)or leave-takingâ€. It’s hard to avoid the notion that some such restructuring has happened when the “nor†is used (e.g. it is very unlikely to just be a misspelling.)
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Note that this construal does not fit all contexts equally well (e.g. rudely lurching into a biker’s path as opposed to rudely leaving a someone’s presence.)
cyclists and cocks on phones lurched into my path without so much as a bye nor leave. More than once I was
forced to say aloud “stop veering!â€
She stood up, walked out and was gone, without as much as a bye nor leave.
they then allow the man to treat them with contempt, give them the kiss-off and just walk away from their
questioning without a bye nor leave.
Hundreds of hits. Very many more for the “by or leave†form. Also some “buy or leaveâ€, though some of those are legitimate, meaning “take it (buy it) or leave (it/the store)â€. This suggests another eggcornical restructuring: imposing some situation on a person (including perhaps a situation of solitude caused by your rudely leaving) is leaving that person with no choice, no chance to decide whether to buy or to leave. Works for me!
Or is it a “buy or leave” choice you’re offering them? Usually in ecommerce, a high bounce rate is a symptom of your visitors not finding what
finding offense in that a reporter didn’t ask for a buy or leave when it came to interrupting the president during an interview.
“Christening†is a disgusting imposition on the helpless to be included in a club with a hideous history without a ‘buy or leave’
like being inducted into the mafia by proxythe only uglier intrusion I suppose is cir- cumcision.
We also see corperations and banks looting the economy without as much as a buy or leave from the government. This country is sick from the …
she just walks out of the house without even a buy or leave.
This one may be a bit different:
Thats why they made 76 people redundant, without a buy or leave me . Mike Price is an arsehole, as is his management team
I thought this discussion interesting.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2011-09-19 17:13:58)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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That discussion, from 2005, is interesting. Almost like cave painting.
BTW, the first poster, Mr. pne, was a participant in that chat and he supplied the same link :P. He’s still active over at livejournal linguaphiles.
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It just struck me (I’m slow sometimes. Well, let’s be honest, too much of the time.) that another way to take it is that the person might be construed as saying either “Bye!†or “Leave!â€, essentially running the other person off. Or maybe the first is saying “I’ll go, so, Bye!†and the other “You go, i.e. Leave!â€. In any case: the one leaving says it, so it makes more sense for both expressions to have to do with his (or her) leaving rather than with any attempt to get the other person to leave.
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(Not just slow, but confusing as a boot.)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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