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#1 2010-09-09 11:37:15

Eggfinder
Member
Registered: 2010-09-09
Posts: 1

Semister

Captured today in the wild, as in the beginning of a new “semister”.

Seems to make sense due to the ‘semi’ meaning ‘half’, which would intuitively go with the definition of ‘semester’:
•one of two divisions of an academic year
•half a year; a period of 6 months
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

•An academic term is a division of an academic year, the time during which a school, college or university holds classes. These divisions may be called “terms”, “semesters”, “quarters”, or “trimesters”, depending on the institution and the country.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semester

•Half of a school year (US) or academic year such as fall or spring semester
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/semester

•A period of about 15 weeks which includes about 12 teaching weeks and about three weeks for study and examinations. In addition there is a mid-semester break of up to two weeks.
www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/for/current … s-glossary

•The University’s standard teaching period. There are two semesters per year. View semester dates

Verified that its misuse is pervasive:
http://bit.ly/dgKiV6

I therefore hereby submit “semister” (correct spelling: “semester”) for inclusion in the Eggcorn Database.

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#2 2010-09-09 12:54:33

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Re: Semister

Welcome, Eggfinder!
.
Have you ever heard anyone pronounce this? I would expect it would be “seMIster” rather than “SEmiSTER”, though it is the latter pronunciation that I would expect if the prefix semi – is intended. In fact for many people it would have to be “SEmÄ«-STER” (i.e. [ˈsÉ›maʲˈstɹ̩]) If there was a meaning reasonably assignable to “-ster” in this case it would make an eggcornish reading seem more probable. The only meanings that come to mind are ‘stir’ and ‘-er, person associated with (the stem)’, as in youngster, huckster , etc. Neither fits very well here.
.
To be a good convincing eggcorn, it would need evidence that (a) it is standard for somebody, and (b) somebody for whom it is standard standardly associates the ‘half’ meaning with the first two syllables of the word. It’s possible, but I remain unconvinced at this point.


*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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#3 2010-09-09 16:21:40

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

Re: Semister

I think it’s an eggcorn. It is what we sometimes call an eyecorn, an eggcorn that arises from visual events. “Semi-” can exercise a semantic draw on the spelling “semister” without forcing an audial reconciliation.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#4 2010-09-09 16:56:24

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: Semister

DavidTuggy wrote:

If there was a meaning reasonably assignable to “-ster” in this case it would make an eggcornish reading seem more probable.

How about these – they’re also rare but have assigned a meaning to the last syllable.

Myspace message
im not doing human movement next semesterm, just guna do a single in business lol.

Student blog
since i have already decided to go back to school this coming semisterm, he told me that we can just adjust the my schedules.

Student blog
Incidently,I have to move back to Guangzhou nexe semisterm.I will study in the northern area of our university

BTW, I always thought that the “sem” in semester referred to some kind of partial year, so I offer my own befuddled understanding of the word in evidence. How many know that semester breaks down into “six monther”? That no longer fits any (university) semester I know. They’re all of 4 months now. What would that be? Something ungainly starting with q I think.

Edit: And how about trimesters. They’re fine when you’re talking about the three trimesters of a 9-month pregnancy, but their original signification has been lost when used to describe 3 university sessions per year.

Last edited by David Bird (2010-09-09 17:00:27)

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#5 2010-09-09 17:33:08

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Re: Semister

The “6-month-er” analysis would have been reanalyzed (consciously or not, and if not, eggcornishly) to allow for the formation of trimester (meaning 1/3 of a school year). Of course it is likely that it faded first, so that you had an unanalyzed monomorphemic semester then get analyzed into trimester .
.
Nevertheless: A bimester is a 2-month period, so a trimester ought to be a 3-month period. With summer and winter vacations added, there would be about 3 of them in a year, so the other meaning would fit school years as well as pregnancies. So perhaps trimester is not formed off of semester after all.
.
I agree, kem, that this could be an eyecorn. But if the eyecorn really is the standard analysis for the word for its users, I think that they would almost have to pronounce it SEmiSTER and they would probably think the the audible word seMESter (which they have almost certainly heard!) was a different word. If they pronounce it seMISter, then I would need quite a bit of convincing to believe they really have the prefix semi – as a robust component of it.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2010-09-09 17:41:43)


*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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