Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
This topic was inspired by Ascared’s post “Heart of the matter” where he discusses “heart rending/RENDERING.” I felt the current subject deserved a separate post since it may or may not qualify as a distinct eggcorn.
There is an expression “heart wrenching.”
But I’m not sure whether it’s legitimate or an eggcorn of “heart rending.”
“Wrench” as a verb can mean: 1. to move with a violent twist, 2. change: distort, pervert, 3. to cause to suffer mental anguish,... ...and various other definitions.
The Google counts of the usages I am concerned with are:
1,990,000 “heart wrenching”
1,680,000 “gut wrenching”
10,800 “mind wrenching
First of all, I find it peculiar that “mind wrenching” is hardly used when it seems to be the only legitimate usage for definition 3.
Second of all, I can understand the application of definition 1 in “gut wrenching” since one can imagine being physically jarred (in the gut) by bad news.
But (finally), I just don’t think any of the definitions really apply all that well to “heart wrenching.” So, my conclusion would be that “heart wrenching” is an eggcorn by way of blending of “heart rending” and “gut wrenching.”
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Or, to pose my question differently, is “heart-wrenching” an idiom blend?
heart-wrenching = heart-rending + gut-wrenching ??
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