Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
Balk is a relatively uncommon word which renders it liable to misunderstanding/mishearing – the database already has ‘balked down’ for ‘bogged down’ for example. Bark seems an unlikely substitute but humans as well as dogs can bark and a bark may serve as an objection or warning.
Almost immediately after Bloomberg’s comments, several Democratic Mayoral candidates barked at the idea.
Many people bark at paying $3300 for a Brembo kit, but what about a 6piston 14” kit with 2piece rotors, pads, lines like Markski has for only …
As expected, Finance Minister Miyazawa barked at the proposal in the meeting.
When I originally tore the flex PCB back in 2017, I considered a redesigned flex PCB solution, but I barked at the cost and the lens sat around for some time.
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I looked “balk” up. What a wonderful number of definitions it bears, many of which I had no idea of.
“R” and “L” get mixed up in many languages. The Spanish I grew up with (in eastern Venezuela) was rife with it. Because I wore glasses I was called “Doctol” a couple of times. Nahuatl has no “r”, and “l” is legulally substituted fol it. “Parte” can be pronounced “palte”, though many speakers are bilingual enough to make a creditable “r”. So it shows evidence of being a natural substitution.
Dogs may bark because they are irritated by, or disturbed by something. Those fit in with Peter’s “objection or warning” as possible, and if they actually are thought of, eggcornish motives for the usage.
If anyone is using a Dvorak (Dvo?ák?) keyboard the “r” and “l” keys are adjacent, so a fingerslip typo might be an explanation for some cases.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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