Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
The other day I stumbled on this somewhere:
If truth is evasive than God is not the God that I know.
That inspired me to investigate substitutions of “evasive” for “elusive” and vice versa. An Internet search yielded examples of each, such as:
I am not a cockeyed optimist who believes that we can sort this one out easily. Truth is evasive.
blog
We say that true truth is evasive, but not so much when it comes to virtue.
another blog
For Bartlett, the truth is evasive and only partially attainable: the facts don’t always add up, the narrator’s judgements often conflict, the lines between fantasy and reality are constantly blurred…
book review
Don’t be elusive – ...I’ve always been honest about my intentions…they can’t accuse me of being sneaky or underhanded…
blog again
Can being elusive about where you went to school make people think you went somewhere top-tier?
Q & A site
You are being elusive about the truth sir.
discussion thread
The meaning similarity seems apparent to me, while there is enough difference that the words aren’t synonymous. The only question in my mind is whether they are pronounced similarly enough that we can call this an eggcorn (in both directions), or have to relegate this reciprocal substitution to the realm of “mere” malaprops.
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