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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2017-12-26 12:14:16

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

plotitudes, plauditudes, etc.

I was listening to a video clip and one of the participants used a word he pronounced [‘plɔɾɪtudz]. From the context he clearly meant ‘platitudes’. I don’t remember hearing that before. I checked, and to my slight surprise both that and [‘plæɾɪtudz] are accepted by at least some dictionaries; the latter (the way I pronounce it) is preferred.
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The /ɔ/ was clearly (lip)rounded, but given the /a//ɔ/ collapse in much American English, and the neutralization to flapped /ɾ/ of /t/ and /d/, I can imagine this new (to me) pronunciation being spelled at least four ways: plotitude, ploditude, plautitude , or plauditude . All (of course) appear on the Internet, though not particularly commonly; plotitude the most often, I think.
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Here are some examples:
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Plotitude

today’s speaker of the house emerged to make his first public remarks. and if you’re expecteding more plotitudes about
working together and finding common ground with president obama, well, you came to the wrong press conference.

Superpowers’ Plotitudes Refuted. All these lies and dirty tricks of the superpowers received a head-on blow from the
representatives of the third World countries. Refuting the nonsense about. “disarmament,” the representative of Burundi
stated that the arms race is, first of all, an attribute of big powers seeking hegemony

Well it was fun, but I don’t really understand all of DeeCee’s cross-organization plotitudes. I have to sweep up some
motorcycle drones, though, before they start to smell.”

For some it seems like the word plot may be in there; if platitudes are used to cover nefarious motives, plotitude works pretty well. Unsurprisingly, some hits smell of conscious wordplay. E.g.:

And think of a whole gar- don of such thoughts flower plotitudes! Of all mv flowers I like best tho Poppycock

Here for you, fresh out of a nice head-cold and a long weekend, is. My Immortal by Tara “Tata” Gillespie (Everyone’s
favorite troll!?), translated into English and a semi-decent plot-itude by yours truly. I’m adding my own plot points where
this one gets (stays?) weak.

Ploditude :

Here’s another ploditude, a piece of advice I have been following myself for several days. Beyond having some idea of where I’m staying at the end of the day, I am no longer consulting my guide book all the time, or counting the kilometres to each town, but simply walking and enjoying whatever happens. Carpo diem.

Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man · 100 Days of Ploditude · El Gordo ·

These are quite certainly word-play, and I found none that looked to me like real eggcorn candidates. I can sort of imagine trite, pedestrian phrases being called by the name, but I lack any good examples.
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Plauditude

Normally he would have greeted him with a plauditude for his wisdom, but Nicodemus had heard far more about his
workings than his teaching, so he praised him for his miracles.

a paper of high character setting forth clearly his views upou public questions and free from demagogic plauditude There
was no sop to any clan or class but a platform if carried into execution …

This one could be live. Pretty clearly the idea of praise (from plaud or plaudit ) seems meant: if your platitudes are used for (in)sincere praise, or if your expression of praise is trite, it works pretty well.
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Plautitude

how are you expecting twitter or the government or whoever to stop people saying nasty things on the internet? it’s not
remotely helpful to give some meaningless plautitude about how it needs to stop.

They rose against their ‘capitalist oppressors’ (note the careful Leftist plautitude here folks) and murdered still uncounted
numbers of Tutsis in an orgy of murder, rape and destruction

I don’t see any semantic leaking from the similar stem (plut, plout,) meaning (free-flowing) riches. Not sure what else might be in peoples minds associated with plaut as opposed to the other spellings. But:

Remove Greece from history, and our culture and knowledge becomes far less rich. Remove Rome from history, and all of
European history will become totally unrecognizable. This is just a plautitude i’m afraid (excuse the pun). None has the
slightest clue how history would be if any piece of it was “removed” or did not happen as it did. Perhaps as i mentioned
earlier we would all be speaking Persian or using the Celtic calendar now, instead of the Roman one (that was devised by
Greeks;).

This is confessedly wordplay. I am not sure if the connection to the loss of riches is intended, or a reference to Plautus (which would seem more apropos if he were an historian instead of a comic playwright).
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In some : plotitude and plauditude might well be eggcorns in some of the usages above or elsewhere, ploditude could be if we could find good examples. Plautitude seems less likely overall.
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fwiw the ‘right’ pronunciation might also be written plattitude , and reasonably often is. I don’t see anything strikingly eggcornish there, but there might be if you thought about it. An attitude of plattitude (being easily pleased ?) can take you a long way…
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Last edited by DavidTuggy (2017-12-26 12:23:09)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#2 2018-01-10 04:10:11

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

Re: plotitudes, plauditudes, etc.

Okay, this could well be no more than a typo, but there’s a good few of them.

Protestantism and Catholicism are generally bereft of the gospel in my experience, rarely do you hear among all the pc palatitudes of the liberals, or the haranguing of conservatives anything about Christ dying for the sins of the world.

also why not tell any of the crew you have a plan and instead of empty palatitudes about hope.

Giving vague palatitudes is for many people easier that dealing the more complex reasons for why we suffer.

Sports talk makes me want to puke, its all palatitudes and cliches.

Spelling aside, there’s attitude there, the tastes of palate , the colouring choices of palette, and the pre-packaging of items which might arrive on a pallet. Yes, it is a bit fanciful.

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#3 2018-01-10 06:51:20

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

Re: plotitudes, plauditudes, etc.

ahem

I suspect it would be entertaining to watch Tammy-Fae Bakker utter flatitudes for a couple of hours but… sorry… I am not going to actually pay for that.
video review

Cue the “it’s a business…” flatitudes. New coach strikes me as second-coming of Don Matthews.
sports discussion

I saw a few typos and lots of puns in this search. Above are two of the most likely eggcorns I found, and even they could be wordplay. The eggcornish meaning connection would reflect the fact that “platitudes” is usually negatively connoted, hence an intended pearl of wisdom that falls flat.

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#4 2018-01-10 10:31:46

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

Re: plotitudes, plauditudes, etc.

These are surely rouge expressions that the tongue is born to, but fitting nonetheless. Platitudes as the overrich bleating of wind instruments.

Writing for The Nation, Anthony Bower complained that the film “deserves a special academy award” for “mawkish sentiment” and “muddled thinking”; “Meet John Doe reeks with blatitudes,” the Scribner’s review declared.
https://books.google.ca/books?id=p_2SDQ … 22&f=false

The vindication of sentiment, the spurts of bland sentimentalism, empty “good-willing” grand statements, do-gooder blatitudes and inane bleatings that we’ve had — and continue to — endure from our politicians
https://medium.com/@aelena/mastering-yo … 0936ed1364

For once, it’s nice to have an dev book not full of useless screenshots and blatitudes going beyond 500 pages.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Performan … 0596529309

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#5 2018-01-15 10:12:55

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: plotitudes, plauditudes, etc.

One wonders how many people hear “attitudes” in “platitudes.” And in “beatitudes” (unless, of course, they pronounce it BEAT-uh-toods).


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#6 2018-01-15 15:16:08

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: plotitudes, plauditudes, etc.

Peter Forster wrote:

Spelling aside, there’s attitude there, the tastes of palate , the colouring choices of palette, and the pre-packaging of items which might arrive on a pallet. Yes, it is a bit fanciful.

Also the notion that palatitudes are more palatable than the hard truths that might be more originally and therefore forcefully expressed?
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Dixon wrote:

ahem

It could be that trite phrases simply fall flat without pervading the atmosphere. On the other hand, you may well be right.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2018-01-15 15:25:03)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

Offline

 

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