Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Following a bit further down the winding trail ;
If it is a book I want to own enough to buy, I will probably always buy the Kindle version. Otherwise, I will hightrail it down to the library.
If weeds could sprout legs and run, they would be hightrailing it from the RED DRAGON.
Then high trailing it to see my Aunt Marlene and Uncle Bob before they leave to Oregon.
I had supposed hightailing it was a reference to white-tail deer (which raise their tails quite visibly when running away), though some etymological sites suggest cattle or other animals may have been referred to. Anyhow, many people nowadays have no experience of any such behavior to refer to.
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Hightrailing might involve taking a high trail over a mountain as a quick but tiring and potentially dangerous shortcut, or perhaps as a safer alternative for avoiding pursuit. A less likely possibility might involve taking the some kind of moral “high roadâ€, perhaps by avoiding a fight? Or is it high speed on the trail that is referred to, a bit like fast-tracking ? Anyhow, the eggcornish possibilities are there.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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