Eggcorn Forum

Thank you, Inglese, for contributing an eggcorn to our growing list of religious eggcorns.

If it is an eggcorn. The problem with “Jew Deism” for “Judaism” is that it is often an intentional skew, a sort of pun, made for ridicule (suggesting that Judaism is an almost-agnostic religious position) or for social comment (emphasizing the religious nature of a social stance), and intentional word reworkings can’t be eggcorns. The example you cite comes from Yahoo Answers, a site where users intentionally misuse words in order to draw comments that their status at the site.

Still,it may be an eggcorn. I went through the examples of “Jew Deism” offered by Google and found a few usages that seem to represent users who really think that “Judaism” is rendered in print as “Jew Deism.” Here are some of them:

Comment on movie trailer: “Sarah was the wife of Abraham, father of Jew-deism, making her the mother of Jew-deism (she is referred to as “Sarah our mother” and is the first of the 4 mothers of Jew-deism).”

Comment in Hinduism thread: “Mr. Gopalakrishnan was talking about Jew-deism, that is what was the situation before the birth of Christ. He has not quoted anything what happened after the birth of Christ or what Christ said. Christ according to Christians came to set right the wrongs of Jew-deism and he has clearly said that Jews were going the wrong way or rather do not understand what God wanted. ”

Amazon book review: “ the last time I checked even Jew-deism doesn’t teach hatred.”

Comment on ezine article: “ the Jews will not convert to Christianity at the so called end of times no more than you would convert to Jew deism.”