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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2012-02-12 10:41:48

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

The superstitious k

Crawling out of a Freudian nightmirror earlier this week was the following image, of an excrescent, double-fanged k attached to a poor woman’s neck:

We turn out the light and everythings dark and quiet when all of a sudden my husband says in my ear, ”honey theres something on your kneck.” I know it’s a snake, i’m terrified and then I wake up.

We’ve considered the superstitious aitch-insertion from different angles. Kays get around too. Don’t look now, there’s something on your kneck. Now it’s on your knee … no, it’s heading towards:

How many knipples do male dogs have?
Yahoo questions

she should quit being a model because her knose is so beyond feral i can’t explain!
Celeb hatred

i have my ears pierced (3 times each) both nipples (rings) ,my knavel, and a small diamond nose stud.
Profile

I pull out two handguns and blast the bride to iddi little bits the I run back up the hill, grab you by the knostrils and kick you off the hill
Gamer fantasy

Major’s problems with not so much with Clinton as with his small majority and Europe and frankly hanging on by his fingerknails for three years.
Cross atlantic forum

Now something is really gettin on my knerves… Its about the report cards. {...} now what im really gettin mad in is that I got me a C because of 1 english test. Then other people who did the same (make a snake path on the bubble sheet) thing that i did on that test got them a 100 (A) on the report card.
Gamer lament

So the snake returns, as an English test-answering strategy.

Last edited by burred (2012-02-12 10:48:54)

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#2 2012-02-12 11:48:09

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2853

Re: The superstitious k

I love “knavel.” Somehow it seems right.

Can our phonaesthetic phans enlighten us? Does amplifying “n” with “k” have morphemic qualities?

Your post also brings up the Knut controversy. The “k” in the Danish/English king’s name is pronounced. Thus the Anglicized Canut/Canute. The modern Norwegian name still has a hard K. But the Christian name “Knute” is widely pronounced with a silent “k” in the Anglocosmos. Even Knute Rockne gets rechristened as “noot.”


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#3 2012-02-12 12:40:08

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1691

Re: The superstitious k

Noot as in Gingrich?

I know, I love “knavel” and knavels too. It is a knavish little nave. As the Online ED says, “Even in medieval Europe, it was averred that ”[t]he seat of wantonness in women is the navel.” [Cambridge bestiary, C.U.L. ii.4.26].” Navel is a word that has been cursed for me for life, after my buddy called it a nav-ELL when we were 8 or thereabouts. Now I can’t use it without that echoing in my ear. I vote we dub it henceforth the knavel.

Acknowledgements to Saint Canute for continuing support, and Salud i força al knavel

Last edited by David Bird (2012-02-12 14:28:25)

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#4 2012-02-13 09:45:04

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

Re: The superstitious k

I tried to understand what a morpheme is; it’s a slippery concept. We’ll all be better off if I hold my tongue on that. I don’t think there’s any meaning to the additional k in most of the above hits. They could easily be WTFTs. It was fun to speculate that the k on the neck was more than coincidence, however.

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#5 2012-02-13 10:41:22

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2853

Re: The superstitious k

A morpheme is, in essence, the smallest unit of word meaning. The atom of semantics. Or at least it was until phonaesthetics came along with its new subatomic linguistics. Now we have more phemes than we know what to do with.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#6 2012-02-17 05:52:04

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1224

Re: The superstitious k

One further body-variant:

Also, his finishing move in hand-to-hand battles would be something other than the double axehandle strike to the knape of the kneck.

Some of the spare kays may have been dislodged through overactive flexing of nees and nuckles, of which there are numerous examples.

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#7 2012-02-17 12:56:44

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2853

Re: The superstitious k

I agree, Peter. When the doctor knocks with the knob of his knuckle on your knee, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that he is testing your knerves. “Knee” and “knuckle” in particular help pave the way for other body-related leading “n”s to become “kn”s.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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