Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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The Eggcorn Forum and the Eggcorn Database are currently in the process of being converted into static sites.
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
From Los Angeles Times Op-Ed columnist, Max Boot : “Making the best of a weak hand, Democrats argued that the case was not about petty-ante perjury…” I can get about one per column from this writer, but I won’t bore you with all of them. This one does seem to qualify as an eggcorn, because the intended meaning of “penny-ante” (small-time or two-bit) jibes with the mistaken form, “petty-ante” pretty well. I am chagrined to say that this writer gets paid to mangle the English language and has apparently never played poker. “Petty-ante” got about 404 Google hits; perhaps it is catching on.
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