Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
While on a family vacation my sister refused to share a room with her brother. “Oh, no,” she exclaimed, “that would be incense!”
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Is this an eggcorn or just an unfortunate mistake?
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Well, I find the mistake charming—likewise that innocent perspective that considers sharing a bedroom “incest.”
But no, this is probably a malaprop rather than an eggcorn. It would only be an eggcorn if we could persuade ourselves that the speaker knew what “incense” meant and that she found it appropriate in this context.
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Maybe she was thinking insense.
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Nonsense, Tocayo! How can you be so insensitive?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Where’s the like button on this thing?
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