Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Although it scarcely seems likely, it may well be that some two-finger typists have never noticed that qwerty represents the first five letters on a conventional keyboard. I heard someone mention what sounded like “a standard quirky keyboard” so assumed that something eggcornical might be afoot; the replacement of an unusual or obscure term with a more familiar one is clear enough, but I seem unable to cast the imagery into any tolerable alternative. It’s also difficult tease out relevant examples since keyboards can be quirky. I find myself wondering whether the apparent affinity of ‘quirky’ for ‘keyboard’ – most of the 396 mentions are musical – has been influenced by qwerty.
I have a cell phone with the full quirky keyboard and I have to say that I still love it and hope it is always available. Yes, it is a bit larger and …
hubpages.com/hub/Quirky-Keyboard-On-Cell-Phones – 18k – Cached
I have a cell phone with the full quirky keyboard and I have to say that I still love it and hope it is always available. Yes, it is a bit larger and …
hubpages.com/hub/Quirky-Keyboard-On-Cell-Phones – 18k – Cached
Because the layout of the keys is the same as a quirky keyboard, if you can type ok on a normal keyboard you will type fast on this, because your hands go …
I’m afraid nothing will compare to the Quirky keyboard I currently use on my World Edition. I’ve tried the iPhone and it’s a nightmare, I’m hoping the Storm …
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You must be as arithmetically challenged as I am, Peter: qwerty has six letters, though I had to count them three times to be sure.
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You said
something eggcornical might be afoot; the replacement of an unusual or obscure term with a more familiar one is clear enough, but I seem unable to cast the imagery into any tolerable alternative
To me the imagery is quite clear: Other keyboard layouts (Dvorak being the best known) are carefully designed for ergonomic ease and typing speed: key placement in qwerty is, by contrast, arbitrary and unpredictable = quirky.
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I don’t know that it is standard for anybody, but if it is, and if they perceive the imagery the way I suggested, it is an eggcorn.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-06-03 08:12:13)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Ah yes, six it is: I have many more Achilles’ heels than feet I’m afraid. I’ve read of other keyboard layouts and I suppose it could just be possible that someone might genuinely find ‘qwerty’ quirky.
I wonder whether qwerty might also have influenced the following variants:
Just hearing the little squirty keyboard opening makes me laugh. At this point, I’m pretty sure anyone hearing this without having seen the show is going to …
Why wasn’t the whole world of pop remodelled around Steve Winwood’s squirty keyboard sound on ‘Valerie’ and ‘While You See A Chance’?6:56 AM Feb 12th from ..
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I suspect that some users find the standard keyboard layout idiosyncratic. All the letters of the alphabet are there, but they aren’t in the canonical order used by dictionaries, directories, and the children’s song. They’re in that quirky keyboard order.
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I think you are right, Chad, that for most people the “natural†arrangement would be to follow the traditional order of the letters, and the qwerty keyboard’s idiosyncrasy would be construed relative to that, rather than to something like the Dvorak keyboard.
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I think for me the fact that the qwerty name for the keyboard arrangement was so often mentioned in contexts where it was mentally juxtaposed and contrasted with the Dvorak or other layouts heightened that standard. As the word has become more mainstream, and as it has begun to be used in spoken as well as written form, that juxtaposition is doubtless lessened for most people. E.g. if a computer salesman tells someone that the computer has “a standard qwerty keyboardâ€, a person who doesn’t know the background for the word is extremely likely to hear “quirky†and not know that it is meant as a contrast for other layouts (which also do not follow the traditional order.)
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-06-05 10:01:47)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I have a feeling they just don’t think about it much. “Quirky” is familiar; “qwerty” is not, even if they do have a keyboard in front of them. People often just don’t see what is in front of them.
In fact, I like this so much, I think I’m just going to start using it.
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