Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
The Eggcorn Forum and the Eggcorn Database are currently in the process of being converted into static sites.
Once the conversion is complete, all existing posts are expected to still be accessible at their original URLs. However, no new posts will be possible.
Feel free to comment on the relevant forum threads.
Chris -- 2025-05-10
This happens to me occasionally:
I encounter or think of a new word or phrase that seems like an eggcorn, only to find that it’s perfectly normal usage somewhere (e.g., UK versus USA or whatever). Sometimes the presumptive “eggcorn” is actually the acorn from which sprang the phrase I thought was the acorn. Most recently, I encountered a reference to humming and hawing for the first time. My excitement about having found a new eggcorn faded upon finding that humming and hawing is standard in the UK, and apparently (according to this ngram graph) predates the American hemming and hawing by about a century!
Offline