Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
A “tour of duty” is a standard term for time spent in military deployment. A “turn of duty” seems to be a term for the time spent at the helm of a ship. And perhaps there is also a U.K. usage for “turn of duty” which might be the equivalent of the former … not sure. So, the two expressions appear to have standard usages, and perhaps even some informal usages.
With that backdrop, I suspect that there are still some reshapings of “tour of duty” to “turn of duty” because a “tour” usually connotes a voluntary, leisurely activity, while a “turn” picks up on the notion of repeat deployments … or at least duty shared with other soldiers.
I thought I had some examples, but I’m not sure any of them are the reshaping I thought they were. Perhaps my assessment here is offbase in some way. Feel free to chime in with corrections or new insight.
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