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#1 2014-11-02 09:34:23

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

tadpool << tadpole

“Tadpool” for “tadpole” seems to be a frequent mistake. Three examples:

Youtube video: “ tadpools (label of video)”

Building game site: “I got a present.It was a tadpool habitat”

Web fiction: “The being known to some as Narenek sat by a misty pond as the sun began to rise in the heavens. He was aware of everything in the pond, from the algae that fed the lower levels of insects, followed by the by the tadpools and water skimmers..”

“Tadpole” is apparently “toad” + “poll,” the latter used in the sense of rounded head, scalp. A tadpole does look a bit like a disembodied toad’s head.

“Tadpool,” I assume, recalls the fact that tadpoles are found in pools of water. But there may also be an infusion of the non-Teutonic “pool,” the one derived from French poule, which arose in betting circles in the late 1600s and ultimately gave rise to the name of the table game and words such as “carpool.” If so, “tadpool” would also recall that tadpoles are seldom found solitary—they are, as it were, pooled together in pools.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#2 2014-11-02 13:59:38

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: tadpool << tadpole

I wonder if somehow a tidepool got into the mix, although the pools Kem mentions, where tadpoles are to be found, are fresh-water pools. (Are there any salt-water amphibians?)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

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#3 2014-11-02 16:07:57

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: tadpool << tadpole

Are there any salt-water amphibians?

A few. But the tadpoles are fresh-water: http://animals.pawnation.com/can-frogs- … 11011.html

“Tadpool” might be a good collective noun for the larval stage of an amphibian. We have a knot of toads, an army of frogs, a congress of salamanders, and a tadpool of tadpoles.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#4 2014-11-10 20:40:22

yanogator
Eggcornista
From: Ohio
Registered: 2007-06-07
Posts: 237

Re: tadpool << tadpole

In the midwest, it isn’t unusual to hear it pronounced “tadpool”, so I see this as just a phonetic spelling of a bad pronunciation.

Bruce


“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin

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