Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
The Eggcorn Forum and the Eggcorn Database are currently in the process of being converted into static sites.
Once the conversion is complete, all existing posts are expected to still be accessible at their original URLs. However, no new posts will be possible.
Feel free to comment on the relevant forum threads.
Chris -- 2025-05-10
My good friend from Taiwan has observed that, “it takes two to tangle” and I think she’s right!
Offline
I just thought of “It takes two to tangle” this morning.
Offline
See This Word Detective issue . “It takes two to tango” was first observed in1952, and its rise in popular usage is fully due to the song of that title. ”... tangle” is attested from the early 18th century.
Neither is an eggcorn.
Offline
So was the “tango†version a purposeful pun on the earlier one? (I always had thought the “tangle†version was an eggcorn: it was for me at least!)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline