Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
This one is a round-tripper. In the hunch >> hint direction:
I’ve got a hint, that I have to set some Windows environment variables first. Is this correct?
nerd discussion
Since I’ve got a hint that Matt (new guy in season 2) is going to compete with Scott for Allison’s affections, there should be a new mysterious girl in town.
TV discussion
I’ve got a hint of how Wes and Ruth Cutter’s revenge is going to work out, and I think I know how Atticus fits in.
comic book review
I think I’ve got a hint at what might be wrong.
nerd discussion
And in the hint >> hunch direction:
I think those digitals w week estimators are pretty good actually! Although I wasn’t happy with it, it did give me a hunch that I wasn’t doubling like I should have w my last mc.
pregnancy discussion
We have better things to do than follow every wild goose chase brought to us so if you want to convince me, you’re going to have to do a little more than just give me a hunch.
short story
something peaceful about this, but the trigrams give me a hunch to watch out for bush fires, but thats really just an impression.
I Ching discussion
But you guys who knows everything about the openHAB source code maybe could give me a hunch whether it is realistic or not to make this kind of change.
nerd discussion
Admittedly it’s a bit of an oversimplification to see a hunch as coming from within while a hint comes from an external source, but I find this distinction useful in analyzing the hint << >> hunch duo. It’s true that some observation or a suggestion from someone can “give” us (lead us to) a hunch, but not in the direct sense in which someone gives us a hint. Anyway, as that rather fuzzy distinction is the main difference between a hint and a hunch, I suggest that the meaning similarity is sufficient for eggcornicity.
Some eggcornistas will object that the sound similarity is insufficient. My approach is more inclusive. I believe that if there’s enough sound similarity between a proposed eggcorn and its acorn that the similarity is unlikely to be coincidental, that’s sufficient for an eggcorn verdict. Two one-syllable words with an initial h followed by an n just after the vowel meet that criterion. Eggcorn in both directions, sez I.
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In fact there’s an tongue-tip voiceless consonant after the n too. Nevertheless
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I’m with our less-inclusive colleagues on this one, I’m afraid. The semantic similarities are enough to account for the usages. (People trying to say that there is a slight suggestion of whatever could easily fasten on either word as a malapropism of the other). And the phonological differences are great enough that the slight similarities do not really enhance that explanation much. It is interesting, no doubt about it, but not clearly in the eggcorn category.
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This is relevant, though;
Just give me a hinch and I will give you more links than you can handle to read
It doesn’t affect me a hinch here :anyway: Click to expand… Yeah. Just noticed if I rotate my phone to landscape, the problem is gone. Thx!
there’s just a hinch of smut
I’ve only skipped through the first few posts, but to me it looks like he has solid evidence against that person, not just a “hinch” or “might be cheating”.
Hinch joins pinch, and skosh, and goosh and inch and bunch and crunch and munch and punch and squinch/squint and cinch and others where a final ch/sh means something is or gets small or at least compressed a bit. Onomatopoeic in its way (you are compressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth, making the smallest space possible there.) Which of course does not deny that the word can simultaneously arise from blending hint and hunch and maybe others.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2018-11-16 19:27:40)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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