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#1 2006-09-13 10:22:21

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

GASLY (ghastly) ...and an aside on car crashes

Google counts on Sept 13, 2006
4,280,000 ghastly
10,200 gasly
Analysis by Joe Krozel

Before I get started, let me implore respondents not to spiral down into potty humor.

“Ghastly” means “terrifyingly horrible to the senses.” And, one definition of gas (as a verb) is “to poison or otherwise affect adversely with gas.” Whence, the eggcorn “gasly.”

[As an aside, I found it interesting that there were at least four descriptions of “gasly” car crashes. It’s as if the subconscious association of gas—as used in the car tank—suggests the use of “gasly” (or even ghastly) to describe the accident.]

Examples:

» [SCAM:] Good Day My Dear Someone » Quix0r’s Personal WeblogThe fund has been lying in a suspence account without anybody coming to put claim over the money since the account owner died in a gasly motor accident with …
blog.mxchange.org/2006/08/26/scam-good-day-my-dear-someone/ – 37k – Cached – Similar pages

ZabaSearchhistory how i lost my family)i was at the age of 3years when i lost my parents in a gasly motor accident.i was lucky to be the only surviver in the …
zabasearch.com/messages/zaba_messages_archive1.php?pageNum_Recordset1=129&totalRows_Recordset1=152721 – 964k – Cached – Similar pages

Noteworthy Notes Archive, 2006 a: A brief explanation. This is an …13.4.2006: &quotall the way i lost my husband and my children 1972 in a gasly motor accident in US. I am a very greedy woman with all cost i dont know much …
www.geocities.com/trevor_dykes/wafarchive06a.htm – 56k – Cached – Similar pages

The Prom Site, My Parents… ribbons in my hair and this gasly dress again….omg…what am i going to do? if she keeps on at this rate im going to end up like a doll by next week. ...
www.thepromsite.com/parents/myparents1. … ox&page=17 – 28k – Cached – Similar pages

World AIDS Campaign Forum – Members & PromisesI promise to help those who forget the many people who die every second from this gasly epedemic. I promise to help with my voice speaking on the highest …
community.worldaidscampaign.net/memberlist.php?ltr=O&pp=0&sort=username&order=asc – 29k – Cached – Similar pages

Best Female Performance in Goblet Of Fire [Archive] – Chamber of …Emma’s performance was even more gasly than the first.. I don’t know what it is.. it’s just soo apparent she’s acting.. and sometimes.. you can tell how …
www.cosforums.com/archive/index.php?t-78237.html – 70k – Cached – Similar pages

Last edited by jorkel (2006-09-13 10:23:25)

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#2 2006-09-13 12:39:48

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Re: GASLY (ghastly) ...and an aside on car crashes

I just thought I’d check to see how often “ghastly” is subconsciously used to describe car accidents (motivated by associating “gas” with car).

94,200 “horrific car” ...42,400 “horrific car accident”
19,100 “gruesome car” ....11,000 “gruesome car accident”
14,700 “awful car” ...1230 “awful car accident”
2480 “ghastly car” ....938 “ghastly car accident”

I guess I’m probably wrong to assume that car accidents are most often described as “ghastly” because it is homophonous with “gasly.”

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