Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
The Eggcorn Forum and the Eggcorn Database are currently in the process of being converted into static sites.
Once the conversion is complete, all existing posts are expected to still be accessible at their original URLs. However, no new posts will be possible.
Feel free to comment on the relevant forum threads.
Chris -- 2025-05-10
There are plenty of hits for this from across the Anglophone world. Some might be due to misunderstandings by court clerks but enough seem to be what the writers may think the expression is, meaning: null and stay away. ‘Void’ and ‘avoid’ have similar etymologies, interestingly.
Last edited by JuanTwoThree (2019-01-30 02:12:11)
On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
Offline
Writers should null and avoid “null and avoid.”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
Offline
Interesting. It may be a hidden eggcorn. The true problem may be with the null rather than the avoid, when used together as verbs. Avoid can apparently be used legitimately in legalese to mean to void, so the expression to annul and avoid does show up in court documents, though not too often, perhaps because its redundancy smacks you in the face, though when has that stopped them before.
Offline
David Bird wrote:
[…] when has that stopped them before.
True, undeniable and irrefutable besides (not to mention to boot).
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2019-02-07 09:39:00)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline