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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2016-10-03 14:00:06

CatherineR
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-09
Posts: 61

cancer-sticking for cancer-stricken

A political meme circulating on Facebook this week accuses Newt Gingrich of leaving his “cancer-sticking” wife. Haven’t seen it elsewhere. Does it mean she’s stuck with cancer?

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#2 2016-10-03 17:11:50

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

Re: cancer-sticking for cancer-stricken

My wife is dead and I had to find out from an autopsy report that she was a cancer-stickin’-time bomb…
fan fiction

Also, there seem to be quite a few examples of “cancer sticken” online, but they could easily be typos, and it’d be difficult if not impossible to distinguish typos from eggcorns in this case, so I decided not to go there.

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#3 2016-10-05 09:41:18

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

Re: cancer-sticking for cancer-stricken

Does it mean she’s stuck with cancer?

Perhaps what lies behind this is the phrase ‘stick it to the man’ which, with its defiant challenge, must surely have influenced the Stick it to Cancer charity. My guess is that Mrs Gingrich is either a stoical sufferer of cancer or a supporter of such a charity.
Alternatively, but even less likely, at one time cigarettes were cheerily referred to as cancer sticks, which would make ‘cancer-sticking’ Mrs Gingrich no more than an enthusiastic smoker.

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