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Chris -- 2025-05-10

#1 2011-02-02 14:35:20

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

Take to the airways / airwaves

An airwave is the medium for TV or radio transmission, and an airway is a channel of designated radio frequency for broadcasting, so it is clear that either can relate to the broadcasting of information.

I’ll have to admit, I’m not so familiar with this expression that I know exactly which is the acorn and which is the eggcorn … or whether both are legitimate in their own right. Someone?

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#2 2011-02-02 14:39:29

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

Re: Take to the airways / airwaves

After posting this, I did notice that Pat made a mention of American airways/ airwaves in this post:

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=3057

and with another check, I see it is already in the Database:

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/586/airways/

... designated as questionable.

However...

... the construction I suggested Take to the— has an idiomatic feel to it, so one form or the other has to be the standardized version, no?

Last edited by jorkel (2011-02-02 14:49:35)

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#3 2011-02-02 16:37:37

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2767
Website

Re: Take to the airways / airwaves

I didn’t think an airway had to do with radio, but with a “path through the skies” defined by the flight of airplanes; a channel for physical air traffic rather than radio traffic.


*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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#4 2011-02-02 19:10:44

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

Re: Take to the airways / airwaves

Just using the 4th definition of airway in MW, David … which I didn’t know beforehand either.

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