Eggcorn Forum

This week a friend sent me an email with the word “gratitdue” for “gratitude.” The “due” seemed unusually apt, I thought. It looked, though, like a typo, a simple keyboard metathesis of “u” and “d.” Just to check, I queried my friend. Yes, she said, a typo.

But then I looked up “gratitdue” on Google. Hundreds of people, I was surprised to find, have made the same mistake. Still, it may be, in every case, a typo. Touch typers are notorious metathesizers. “Altitdue,” “solitdue,” and “attitdue,” for example, also yield numerous hits.

And there the matter should rest. Except. On a whim I searched the web for “gratidue,” a similar semantic shaping that is more than a simple metathesis. Again, hundreds of hits. Pages such as the following:

Mormon missionary blog: “My heart is so full of gratidue and joy to my Heavenly Father for blessing me so much.”

Ezine article: “Remini’s been fully supported—she released a note of gratidue last night for everyone’s support. – See more at: http://www.damemagazine.com/2013/07/12/ … puf”

Forum posts: “We ALL owe a debt of gratidue to every man and woman who serves our country.”

Could the word “due” be sneaking into “gratitude” in some speech communities?

While on the topic of “gratitude:” the first part of the word has its own eggcorn leanings. Grants of money and favor are often linked with gratitude. So why not go whole hog and put the grant into the word:

Message from Chinese company: “ I would like to take advantage of this open platform to extend my grantitude !”

Research document from Ghana: “First thing first thus my grantitude goes God Almighty whose grace has been more than sufficient to see me through this research” [and elsewhere in the same document]

Comment on art posting site: “i am way behind on my grantitude for those who have payed me such a compliment as adding me to your gallery”