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#1 2010-06-19 13:09:01

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1691

"Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

The first Ferris wheel was designed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., to mark the 400th anniversary of the European discovery of the Americas, at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. It stood a giddy 264 feet tall. The current record holder is the 541 ft Singapore Flyer, soon to be dwarfed by the Beijing Great Wheel, to open this year at 682 ft. I don’t know whether it will be visible from the moon or not, or whether you could hop across to the moon from up there.

It is not a large leap to see the Ferris wheel as a fair’s wheel.

Classic car enthusiast
Once there, we were very gracefully given the whole tour of the property and a chance to glaze at over 80 classic cars quietly sitting around in the back yard. Oh, and one plane, two helicopters, a fair’s wheel, two dragsters.

Fanfic
Now what do you want to do?”
“Maybe something like the Fair’s Wheel or something.”
“Okay.”
They got in line for the Fair’s Wheel.

Blog
oh my gosh were so high ..no not that kind of high were on a fair’s wheel lol

Did you like “a chance to glaze at” these examples?

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#2 2010-06-19 14:03:50

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2853

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

Oooooh. Good one.

You have probably found a second eggcorn in “glaze.” The substitution of “glaze” for “gaze” is quite common. Here are some examples of “glaze into the distance.” Gazing too long can cause the eyes to glaze over.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#3 2010-06-19 14:28:02

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

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

Fair’s wheel is a great eggcorn!

And gaze/glaze goes in both directions, e.g.

Usually when I hear the words “manga” and “anime” my eyes gaze over, but if you add “festival”, “cosplay”, and “in my backyard” to that, then I’m there! ...
igallo.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html

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#4 2010-06-22 17:34:48

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

I always love concrete eggcorns. This will probably end up in my top 20 of the year.

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#5 2010-06-22 18:44:22

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

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

Another variant:

[Wiki Answers] Uncategorized question: Who made the first fairest wheel? The original Ferris wheel was designed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., as a landmark for .

marmar45’s Journal: bad bad fairest wheel | Find more Journals on … – [ Traducir esta página ] ¶ 18 May 2009 … okay so i was at this fair with my friend and we went on spiny rides like 7 or 8 and i wasn’t feeling good so we went on the fairest wheel …

Emmett, Jasper and I are sitting on the fairest wheel. ... We did so many rides that I started to get tired, Jasper said we should ride the fairest wheel.

Lots of hits, and lots of repeats, which makes it look likely standard for some people. Pretty clear eggcornish motivation.

I didn’t see any cases of “the ferris of them all” that didn’t look purposeful, but this one roundtripping somehow wouldn’t surprise me. Both “Ferris” and “fairest” are obsolescent if not obsolete for a lot of speakers.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2010-06-22 18:46:10)


*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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#6 2010-06-22 19:12:29

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1691

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

Another nice image is the fairy’s wheel.

Kid’s blog
Singapore Flyer is the largest fairy’s wheel in the world.

Study abroad in Adelaide
go on a ride on the glittering fairy’s wheel

Fanfic in Fantasyland
I wanted to jump for joy. I started imagining riding the fairy’s wheel with him.

Here be fairies on the Fairies wheel.

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#7 2010-06-23 11:40:46

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1224

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

A fine find and so fertile too. Here’s yet another variant inspired, as I suspect Ferris himself may have been, by those paddle steamer thingies perhaps:

We were halfway through our food, while we heard an announcement on the speaker that the Ferry’s Wheel, full of people has stuck in the middle of a ride …

There’s also a gigantic ferry’s wheel by it, but I never went on it. Unfortunately the mall closed right as I got there but I still walked …

A kiddie ride that functions like a Ferry’s wheel. It has six attractive ball-designed … FERRY’S WHEEL The park will not be complete without this ride. ..

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#8 2010-06-23 12:13:45

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2853

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

So many good eggcorns from one little acorn.

Perhaps Mr. Ferris also had a hand in building the Eyefull Tower and the Entire State Building.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#9 2010-06-23 18:00:23

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

Perhaps Mr. Ferris also had a hand in building the Eyefull Tower and the Entire State Building.

“Eyeful Tower” is at the very least a uni-corn—I found one hit that’s documentable as authentic (the original poster admitted later in the thread that they hadn’t had time to double-check the spelling):

I’m on a break to tell you that I had a bad bad dream just before I woke up this morning. I dreamed I had stolen the Pope’s robes and was in court. I didn’t know why his robes ended up in my cellar but, that’s where the FBI found them. They were planted there by my former boss. That’s what I think. I had to go to court. Court was under the Eyeful Tower in Paris.
http://wc5.worldcrossing.com/webx?7@@.1de497e4/156

Speaking of threads, this one is so rich—there must be at three variants of “ferris wheel” here that could end up on year’s end lists. I think David B’s original is the strongest eggcorn in a technical sense because the connection between fairs and ferris wheels is so immediate. But my favorite is “fairy’s wheel,” with the reshaping recalling the term “fairy lights,” and—for me at least—evoking images of the paradoxical delicacy of an illuminated ferris wheel at night.

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#10 2010-06-23 18:39:52

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2853

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

“Eyeful Tower” is at the very least a uni-corn—I found one hit that’s documentable as authentic

Nice find. I was ready to write it off as a pickled eggcorn-I could only see punning contexts. “Entire State Building,” however, has some examples that look like real eggcorns (if we only knew what “entire state” meant).

Unicorn. An eggcorn with only one instance. Another good addition to our growing list of gag(ging) eggcorn words.

Is an eggcorn that is uttered by accident a popcorn?


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#11 2010-06-23 18:49:26

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

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

Yes, this is such a fairies’ wheel as you describe, Pat.
.
Here’s another.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2010-06-23 18:55:21)


*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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#12 2010-06-24 10:56:38

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Re: "Fair's wheel" for Ferris wheel

I thought someone already posted “Eyeful tower” ... but apparently it was “Heightful tower” ...

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=852

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