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#1 2013-02-05 10:54:00

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Of no insignificance once so ever

I just had this one reported to me today:

If there are any problems once so ever

It turned out I already had it in my database since 2005, and there are many examples on the Internet, spelled “once so ever” or “once soever”.

the woman I spoke to at the institute was no help once so ever. [My 2005 example]

Banned for no reason once so ever, thanks Bioware and EA

You could find an apartment for $195 for a studio. It was so cheap, and there was no traffic once so ever.

I called the number had some woman pick it up and I told her that my number needs to be removed cause I don’t know the woman once so ever.

Overall, the movie was awesome, but I just found the dinner scene to make no sence once so ever.

That’s not accurate once soever, tons of things are made into business transactions and still hold nurturing properties.

Mark Liberman reported it in 2010 on the Language Log , but I do not find it with a Google search here on this site.

I’m sure it occurs spoken as well as written, though I don’t have that documented.

Anyhow, it strikes me as a pretty good eggcorn: nothing whatsoever means essentially nothing, “not (even) once or ever.” (The interplay between temporal and other expansive identificational meanings for “ever” is somehow paralleled by the interplay between temporal “once” and identificational “what”. “So”, I suppose, is a throwaway word for most of us in this sort of context.)

Some cases might (also) involve the idea “once and forever”.

(In the discussion following Liberman’s post “once or ever” is reported, and there is speculation about the possibility of the eggcorn arising from that collocation in non-rhotic dialects.)

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2013-02-05 11:02:16)


*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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#2 2013-02-05 22:44:30

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: Of no insignificance once so ever

“Once so ever” might be read as “if it happens once, it happens all the time ” Read this way, it almost seems to contradict “whatsoever,” since “whatsoever” is a way of saying “none/never.”

“Once or ever” seems to make more sense as a substitution for “whatsoever”—the action doesn’t happen once, or ever.

Examples of “once or ever” for “whatsoever:”

Tech forum: “Trying to swap a hard drive from my mac to an HP laptop, got stuck with an MBR error, so after trying all the above with no success once or ever, I found this solution, and it took me only 30 seconds.”

Tumblr entry: “. I hate wearing socks but find flip flops to be extremely uncomfortable and frankly devoid of any style once or ever.”

Gun forum: “I have shot 300 rds through it and had no problems once or ever ”

Last edited by kem (2013-02-07 13:30:37)


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#3 2013-02-07 11:27:42

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: Of no insignificance once so ever

kem wrote:

“Once so ever” might be read as “if it happens once, it happens all the time Read this way, it almost seems to contradict “whatsoever,” since “whatsoever” is a way of saying “none/never.”

I don’t know that it is so contradictory; it usually comes in the form of “no * once so ever”.

I can make “no * once so ever” into poetry if I force it. There’re other ways to torture this construction out there. They’re rare and not really sensible, though well camouflaged phonetically. Again, there are elements of procrustean sense.

I think Kvothe has no people skill would so ever and has a very arrogant personality.
Book club

I slept like a baby all the way, so no comments on that time what so waver.
Finn rock band tour diary

So i reccomend that who’s so ever in charge of this operation to give the GREAT VERONICA -AIREY WILSON AN APOLOGY!!!
News comment

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#4 2013-02-07 13:33:25

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: Of no insignificance once so ever

I don’t know that it is so contradictory; it usually comes in the form of “no * once so ever”.

You are right. “Whatsoever” doesn’t mean “never,” but “ever.” So “once or ever” is the contradiction.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#5 2013-02-07 14:05:51

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: Of no insignificance once so ever

kem wrote:

You are right. “Whatsoever” doesn’t mean “never,” but “ever.” So “once or ever” is the contradiction.

Well … Negatives working as squishily as they do wrt “scope”, both [NEG (once and so [=therefore] forever)] and [NEG (once) and-NEG [= “or”/“nor”] (ever again)] parse OK for me. Neither one necessarily involves a contradiction; either can be construed so as to produce one, but we tend to discard parses that don’t add up to us if there is one available that does.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2013-02-07 14:08:44)


*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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