Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I’ve heard “clear as a crystal bell” in Houston conversations. The one I remember learning as a child is “clear as a bell” (a clear sound), which Googles 240,000. “Clear as crystal” Googles 175,000 (one ref. from the Bible). “Clear as a crystal ball” Googles only 17, whereas “clear as a crystal bell” gets 42. Although glass bells do exist and may be optically clear, they usually don’t make much of a bell-like sound. I’d guess that the term “crystal bell” is an eggcorn for “crystal ball”, and/or a hybrid form combining two of the above forms. One can see that as our language has evolved and our sensory experience has become diminished, “clear as a bell” makes little sense today. Few people have heard the clear tones of a great bronze bell (even the Liberty Bell is cracked); so adding the word “crystal” to the old & common “clear as a bell” produces a more understandable phrase. Eggcorns reveal what we have lost in our culture & language.
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