Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
We’ve often invoked the passing of custom and technology for the loss of patency of words and hence their vulnerability to eggcornification. The verb to tease was originally applied, from Proto-Germanic to Old English, to the pulling apart of fibres through the use of thorns, for the production of thread and yarn. Middle English added the figurative sense of pricking, annoying or provoking someone, now in a playful way. Unfamiliarity with the original sense of the word may have led to the idea that things other than splinters could be tweezed apart.
There are a close to a hundred hits for to tweeze apart.
Last edited by David Bird (2014-10-25 15:03:59)
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