Eggcorn Forum

In some North American dialects of English historical /{N/ is raised to [eN] or [eIN], thus making a word like “bay” have the same vowel as “bank.”

I did a Google search for the word “pangful,” which is a rare word meaning “full of pangs” knowing that for many speakers it sounds very similar to “painful.” While “pangful” mostly brings up results of definitions on the word there are some examples of people using it in a context for which “painful” was probably meant. Here’s a page with one such example:

Sigh… Life without ping is pangful.

It is unlikely the person meant “full of pangs,” but in the context “painful” makes more sense. Of course there is probably a semantic connection between the word—”pangs” are usually not so comfortable, so the connection with “pain” is not too hard to make. I also have found examples of “pang” for “pain,” as in the phrase “no pain no gain.” Here I found an example of the phrase with “pang”:

NHL trade deadline. G.M.s with no playoff hopes make sure deals rid them of overpriced talent who add little to the game. Thus the old hockey cliche: “No Pang, no gain.”

I find it unlikely that the person here was trying to use a pun and if you do a Google search you’ll find other such examples of this phrase with “pang.”

Last edited by Kirk (2006-07-05 01:52:19)