Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
DB’s last entry had me reflecting on hyphens. There seems a move afoot in some quarters to dispense with them altogether, and I really can’t understand why. I find them charming, curiously useful and not at all wearing to either the tongue or the eye. Anyway, here’s a possibly eggcornish pair. Hail-bent suggests, to me at least, stooping Lowry-like figures persistently trudging into inclement weather:
I also am very saddened by people who just cannot stop them selves and are hail bent on destruction, even if it is their own. I do not get into ..
It seems in Florida(love my state) we are hail bent on living on tourism, and doing ever thing we can to get folks to come here. Now, if we do not …
The Hall is, and has been, run by unpaid volunteers with little help from Torridge who seem hail bent to see it fail.
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This one could easily result from the way -ell words such as “hell” are pronounced in some southern American dialects. “Hail” for “Hell” would be phonetic spelling for such speakers.
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Riding, hail-bent, for leather. Reminds me of a similar entry by a certain eggcornista from 2010:
They were ready to hold down the fort come hail or high water.
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