Eggcorn Forum

This is probably a reading eggcorn: people who don’t know the word stifle from spoken language reading it, pronouncing it internally with an [ɪ] rather than an [aʲ], eggcorning in the idea of a lack of motion from the adjectival stiff (or perhaps some version of the verbal stiff with its idea of causing lack of motion or something of the sort), and then spelling that pronunciation a bit differently (or using the standard spelling for the newly eggcorned meaning). Stiff would then be understood to have been combined with the -le frequentative or “pulsative” (to coin a term?), possibly verbalizing suffix. There are plenty of examples.
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(Sometimes, of course, it might be a dittographic typo, e.g. in the second example below. Or maybe it was eggcornically spelt twice and the proofreader only caught the second one.)

GIRLS HOCKEY: Dragons’ offense stiffled in shutout loss to Willmar

[Headline:] Jibe is meant to stiffle debate – Pure Water Gazette ¶ [Body:] This jibe is meant to stifle debate. There is nothing anti-American about opposing the drive to war.

I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to stiffle a giggle.

She feels stiffled at the strict rules of the Benedictine sisterhood, which once gave her life a sense of meaning.

I am not trying to stiffle anyones opinion, I just know from other forums the particular ‘hot button’ topics.

With all due respect, the method described in the original post seems to completely stiffle creativity

Rifle (v.) and riffle are perhaps the same song, first verse, but both are accepted, with somewhat different meanings (but still pretty close ones, involving a non-careful search).

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2021-07-19 05:57:08)