Eggcorn Forum

On the occasion of the visit of the Dook of Cambridge to Ottawa today, I humbly submit “to rest on your royals”. This looks to me like an metathetical eggcorn squash, between ‘to rest on your laurels’ and ‘get off your royal rear end’. It’s nonce-level rare, so there’s no guarantee that these are not intentional.

And it’s one of those things that you can never really rest on your royals It’s an everyday, get up and put on your boots and go to it.
CEO biz tips

We don’t always sit on our royals, there are times when we help out in the community and help those in need
Veterans forum

the doctor has to take the time to go to each patient and see what they have to get, all this while the nursing staff sit on their royals
Hospital patient neglect, comment

By the way, laurels are all tangled up in limnology through their association with the figurehead member of the crustacean zooplankton, the lovely Daphnia. Daphnia, the water flea, is parthenogenetic, giving birth (almost) exclusively to live female offspring, without recourse to the services of a male. She is named for Daphne, who famously spurned the advances of Apollo, and who subsequently escaped him by turning into a bay laurel tree. A sprig was taken by Apollo as a momento ; the laurel wreath was awarded in his honour at his games, the Pythian games. The Gk word for the laurel is Daphne.

I couldn’t find a way to hook this bit up to Is Grace the Dook.

Edit: There is another uncanny similarity between Daphne and Daphnia, associated with their limbology, in evidence here. On the left, Apollo grips a reluctant Daphne; on the right, alluring Daphnia with antennae.

Last edited by David Bird (2011-07-01 08:51:11)