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Chris -- 2018-04-11
my first contrib so i hope it’s not a fail. the forum search didn’t turn this up.
google returns quite a number of these. this is the citation that jumped out at me:
http://www.exiges.com/ubbz/ubbz/ubbthre … Post143677
the use of “force” in this context-how starting a family forces one to have only reasonable cars, not the sports car he just sold and still desires-seems to qualify it as an eggcorn to me.
Last edited by 4mla1fn (2010-11-10 12:58:07)
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Welcome, 4mla1!
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This one works very well for me: forceable = (±) inevitable , and the foreseeable future is the future that will (we expect) not vary. The – able suffix introduces enough wibble room that we know there still is some possibility of it not happening.
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Also, when the expression is negative (as it very commonly is) you get the very apropòs suggestion that I would force my desired outcome to occur if I could, but I can’t—it’s not in the forceable future.
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I wonder if those who spell it this way (and presumably analyze it this way) still pronounce it as four-see-able . There are a number of other words in which a normally silent or schwatinized e gets pronounced with the ee sound, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2010-11-10 12:23:22)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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This is an interesting one. I’m quite sure David is right about the pronunciation because forceeable future is equally common. Other uses of “forceable” are not necessarily wrong or eggcornal (though most are); someone else has come across this distinction:
Microsoft Word 2003 tried to tell me today that forceable in the phrase forceable input should read forcible. But I’ve never been one to take Word’s word for anything. I checked a few online dictionaries and received little guidance. Most didn’t list forceable. Those that did, however, didn’t indicate that it was a variant of forcible. Only that it was the adjective form of force. So what’s the relationship between these two words? Is forcible the preferred spelling?
Thank goodness for Bryan Garner. In Modern American Usage, he explains that forceable is not, in fact, a needless variant. Forcible means “effected by physical force against resistance,†as in forcible entry. By contrast, forceable simply means “able to be forced.†So in technical writing, an input that can be forced to change state is forceable.
http://andreajwenger.com/2009/10/17/for … -forcible/
Kudos for that.
Now, what to make of the reasonably common “unforceen”, as in “unforceen circumstances”? Unforced, random, or unintentional, maybe?
Most people have heard horror stories from friends, family or acquaintenaces of situations where a home buyer gets to closing, only to be notified by their builder that the project has experienced unforceen cost overruns to the tune of many thousands of dollars. [...] Changing the architecture, floorplan and/or amenity content of any home can result in both forceen and unforceen “COST INCREASESâ€.
http://www.newconstructionboise.com/top-10-mistakes/
Last edited by burred (2010-11-10 16:59:55)
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