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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2016-08-28 07:11:31

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

"shimmer" for "shiver"

Shimmer me timbers!
https://www.facebook.com/doug.bingaman1

Lance was such a gentleman to take his coat off and wrap around my shoulder because I was shimmering from the cold weather.
fiction
(Though this example is from Google Books, it’s not one of those cases where a poorly reproduced font leads to a perceived misspelling. I checked.)

Maybe not enough of these out there to call it an eggcorn yet…

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#2 2016-08-31 14:16:28

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1222

Re: "shimmer" for "shiver"

Interesting – both tremulous, but the one comprised of light rather than matter seems to have shimmied its way into more interesting contexts:

As every Wodehouse aficionado from England to India—where he is exceedingly popular—knows, Jeeves never walks. He materialises or shimmers or floats or glides or slides like a liquid mix of eel and ectoplasm.

The return tripper suggests, perhaps, a rather frostier shimmer?

A bank of candles near the altar provides a shivering light. On the altar itself, a husk of unidentifiable flesh bleeds onto a silver platter.

... illuminated by a shivering light through the bleak window of my soul, emptiness enshrouds this light in woe

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#3 2016-08-31 14:43:59

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

Re: "shimmer" for "shiver"

Peter, I refrained from mentioning “shiver” for ‘shimmer” because I felt there was a high likelihood that the writer/speaker actually meant to convey the image of, e.g., a candle flame shivering back and forth, but I do agree that some of those are probably eggcorns.

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