Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Living in a cloister would definitely give me claustrophia. A potentially disqualifying aspect here is that Latin claustrum gave rise to both claustro- and Old French cloistre, from which we derive cloister.
I discovered while googling this that a local indie band I like – Thee More Shallows – recorded a song called “Cloisterphobia” many years ago. I’ve heard the song but didn’t note the title. Some days the eggcorn radar just ain’t working.
Mander and David Bird posted the more justifiably eggcornish “clusterphobia” and related reshapings long ago.
Puns definitely outnumber sincere reshapings with this one, but I was able to corner and then capture a handful of the timorous little beasties in the wild. The final citation below is probably intentionally poetic but intriguing in its own right. Examples:
“The elevator is a little small so if you are cloisterphobic then this is a concern.”
“The tram up inside the arch is not for the cloisterphobic.”
“The menus were very dirty and the prices were very high for the area not to mention the cloisterphobic seating area and tacky Christmas decor.”
“While not very apt descriptions of prototypical depression, these two scenarios sum up the cloisterphobic clutter and superglue awfulness of an internal mood shift that can recalibrate your customary life into a bizarre orgy of silent dislocations.”
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As we have so often noted, the similarities between puns and eggcorns are extensive, and the lines between the categories are not easy to trace if they are precise lines at all. A pretty good definition for an eggcorn is an inadvertent pun that really fits, and a pun is an eggcorn that you are aware of and use on purpose. What one person offers as a pun may be accepted by another without awareness and even used frequently enough to become standard for that person and maybe others. In this case we have (as you note) etymology involved as well: all of those kloi/au/o/s(tr) stems from the cloister to the closet, from clipping your speech to clapping your hands, go back to Indo-European somewhere; they are in Greek and Germanic at least besides Latin. So what, it’s still fun! Nice find!
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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