Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I was amused to discover that people are making an error of judgment and using the expression “judg(e)ment of error”. What is more, others aren’t noticing: it crops up in a quote from Eddie Gershon, spokesman for the Wetherspoon chain of pubs (whom I happen to know, slightly) in this news story
http://www.itv.com/news/london/2014-09- … -in-a-pub/
and here
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/b … 52659.html
and the only one to try to correct the quote is the Daily Mail (see here)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article … er-up.html
which turns it into “judgment error”.
The error is found around the English-speaking world – here it is in Australia
http://www.bubhub.com.au/community/foru … gery/page5
and Canada
http://forum.goazcats.com/showthread.php?t=14324
and South Africa
http://opencockpit.co.za/index.php/dona … 2013-05-16
and New Zealand
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/ … riend-dies
and the US
http://www.wksu.org/news/story/20800?if … eight=100%
and it has even crept into at least one book
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Rj8z … 22&f=false
although I notice that also has someone on the same page who “caught the flue”, so I think professional copy-editing was rather lacking during that book’s production.
I can see how people might think “judgment of error” is the correct version – it’s a judgment, but it’s an error – so this has the “re-analysis” elements of an eggcorn, and yet it’s not truly a eggcorn, I think, because it still uses the correct words, just in the wrong order …
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yet it’s not truly a eggcorn, I think, because it still uses the correct words, just in the wrong order
The question about whether metatheses, whether of letters, syllables, or words, falls under the umbrella of “similar sounding” in the definition of eggcorns has been a point of debate on these pages. I think most of us would accept Pat’s switch of “Infantada” for “intifada” (here) as an eggcorn. It’s not a great leap from a metathesis within a word to a metathesis within a phrase.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
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