Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
A variant that I didn’t see listed in the “pedestal” eggcorns. Spotted in a student’s essay:
“Gods have the right of power. They were on the top of the petal stool.”
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Welcome to the forum, Amy West. Another example of this—also from a student essay—was reported here on the forum in 2006; it’s here: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=670
All other things being equal, the “stool” substitution makes the reshaping an eggcorn, but I wonder whether there’s also a semantic motive behind the use of “petal.” In the earlier example, women were being “put on a petal stool,” and the stereotypically feminized associations of flowers might have been at play in a speaker’s mind, but I’m not sure.
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I love examples that come from teachers citing student essays—and we’ve had a number of those over the years in this forum—because these are second-hand accounts which are just one interview away from a first-hand account. So, I give this one a preliminary thumbs-up as an eggcorn and encourage a carefully conducted interview with the student!
Aside from working out the imagery, my one reservation is that there are few instances of this mistake, making it a rather “personal” eggcorn. Here’s the one other reference to it on the net:
Answers.com – To be put on a pedal stool Conditions and Diseases question: To be put on a pedal stool? Pedestal, not pedal stool.Damp Squid.
wiki.answers.com/Q/To_be_put_on_a_pedal_stool – Cached – Similar
Last edited by jorkel (2010-10-31 10:58:48)
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Another interesting case of back mutation, or reversion to the ancestral form. Stool and stal are genetic doublets. Stall comes from the PIE root for stand, and developed into a word for a shelter for animals as well as a place to sit, a seat at the theatre, and a delaying tactic. The same root also became a stool. Until it was displaced by the French word chair, a stool was originally a throne. That usage is evident in the Golden Stool of the Ashanti, of Ghana, for example. The humble seat in the privy was once called a stool, too, perhaps jokingly; it is still occasionally referred to as a throne.
The link between pedestal and stool has been obscured by time of course, and doesn’t take away from the eggcorn status of a “petal stool”.
The petal element is novel. Might another source for its motivation be that the tops of stools and pedestals are round, like some petals?
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More simblings.
Gamer forum
just realize all girls are the same and dont put any girl on a petty stool
Sermon blog
We get saved, again by God’s grace, and are doing good at living a godly life so we put ourselves on a petty-stool having “earned” a position a bit higher than others.
Britney again
My dog sings better than her. Stop putting her on a petty stool.
romance
I have noticed that many guys spoiled or putted their gf/wife/SO on a patty stool when she depends on him or being girly girl.
Bad romance
I treat women like a precious stone, I do not hurt them emotionally or physically. I would put you on a pet a stool and have your every needs met by me just like a princess should be treated.
To the ex-wife
I offered you my heart
And everything that love inhaled.
I put you on a pet-a-stool
And treated you like a queen.
Everything that love inhaled!
Later: Logical extensions, up on a petting stool and a paddle stool.
dont wrap me up
in cotton wool
up on a petting stool
I’m not such an innocent girl
Mondegreen
that doesnt give u a reason to put down someone, and definitely not someone that has reached a petting stool that most can only dream of.
Gamer board
Thanks for getting on your paddle stool and explaining to us what Orca really meant.
Sports board
Does your mother make inquiries who you marry, and does that effect your desires for marriage? Does she put your on a higher paddle stool, that you dont want to climb?
Somali life forum
Relationships forum
Bottom line: the higher we put people on a paddle stool the harder they disappoint us!
Celebrity forum
Britney said she didn’t want to be a role model or made to be put on a paddle stool
Last edited by burred (2011-05-21 22:32:10)
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