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#1 2014-12-13 13:47:24

JuanTwoThree
Eggcornista
From: Spain
Registered: 2009-08-15
Posts: 455

Gophers and Gofers

How annoying to see that the word for a person who runs errands can be spelled “gopher”

according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gofer

Obviously it was always meant to be a pun but spelling it like the animal seems to miss the point:

head tour guide, “ambassador,” and former gopher to the stars, Billy Mitchell, who has worked at the Apollo in various capacities


On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.

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#2 2014-12-15 07:33:37

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: Gophers and Gofers

Which has less dignity is a toss-up: burrowing like a rodent or running with the dogs.

Working full-time as Administrative Assistant in RE/MAX Real Estate Office also the general dogsbuddy
Profile

Jim Nwobodo is quite simply a pratt. Ekwueme is a gentleman but has no convictions o be a leader. He is better off as a dogsbuddy who does no one any harm.
Politics forum

Seriously? Football is weird. Become a trainee and get to be a dogsbuddy for free!
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The acorn, dogsbody, was first a kind of ignominious sailor’s gruel.

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#3 2014-12-15 10:21:06

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

Re: Gophers and Gofers

Very funny. I love the dogtrails your mind runs on, and the variants you smell out, Tocayo.
.
Juan, I don’t get how spelling it like the animal necessarily means you’ve missed the point of the pun. Puns by their nature are liable to misspellings heading in two directions. The spelling gofor is not standard, but it certainly does occur, and I would not suppose that those using it necessarily miss the pun.
.
The other logical blended spelling (like gofer , getting part of the spelling from one part of the pun and the rest from the other) would be gophor , I suppose. It is not common, but does occur.

Want to apply for You need a Gophor/Handyman/ Maintenance (Biloxi)?

I recomened getting a friend to help as both a gophor and drinking buddy ;)

But there are enough spellings of the animal term as gophor to render these doubtful.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2014-12-15 10:21:56)


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

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#4 2014-12-16 02:22:13

JuanTwoThree
Eggcornista
From: Spain
Registered: 2009-08-15
Posts: 455

Re: Gophers and Gofers

The key is in your use of “necessarily”. I’m sure that most people get it when they write “gopher” but the very faint bat-squeak of eggcornery is when or if some think it must only have something to do with some characteristic of the animal.

I’m afraid my microscopic knowledge of New World fauna was acquired from Disney’s Wonderful World of Color so I’m not sure what that characteristic might be.

(“Run away and play while I tidy up” says Mommy Gopher and the little critters scamper and play chase-tail. But what’s this? The shadow of a Lesser Piebald Eagle! But ever-watchful mom protects her young and the eagle flies off. No lunch for you today, my aquiline friend)

Didn’t Disney start the suicidal lemmings thing?

What about this?:

Because while the Dems Might resist a republican president, they have to follow the leader of their party right over the cliff, like lemons

They would all fallow each other off a cliff like lemons, if someone said it was good for they health

It’s a compelling image.


On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.

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#5 2014-12-16 23:42:21

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

Re: Gophers and Gofers

“Lemons” for “lemmings.” Funniest switch I’ve heard in some time.

“Dogsbuddy” would be a great eggcorn. If it was. To rare to call.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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