Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
The Mistle Thrush is named after its fondness for mistletoe berries. No doubt it could as easily have been named Whistle Thrush or Bristle Thrush had those been notable characteristics, and it seems reasonable to assume its swift flight towards, for example, my strawberries could result in the eggcornish missile substitution by those for whom mistle/missile are homophones.
Not me of course. Miss-isle and fiss-isle for me.
The missile thrush has short, wistful, almost melancholic phrases of song from December onwards. Often sings at dusk and during rain, ...
This is a pastel painting of a Missile Thrush perched on a snowy fence.
I would go for Thrush, either a Song Thrush or the larger Missile Thrush, both sing loudly but have sweater song than Blackbird.
He notes the “wild and desultory flight” of a “missile-thrush”, a sky of “vast, swaggering, rocklike clouds”. The murmur of rooks reminds …
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Apparently “missel thrush” is an alternate spelling.
“Mistle Thrush” is a new one on me, Peter. We’re a little short on thrushes this side of the pond and north of Mexico. Except for some vagrants, our Robin (Turdus migratorius) is about it, thrushwise. (Our Robin, of course, is not your Robin, which is a passerine.)
Will swap you a few House Sparrows, an invasive which people here do not like, but you seem to like, for another thrush.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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