Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
The words “sliver†and “silver†are frequently interchanged on web pages. Most examples of this switch are probably simple transposition typos. Hundreds of web sites contain the phrase “sliver spoon,†for example. Here’s one of them:
Restaurant forum: “if you were born with a sliver spoon in your mouth go somewhere elseâ€
Is there any reason to think that instances of “sliver spoon†are more than typos? I can’t think of one.
When we see “sliver of hope†(at least a dozen unique examples on the web), the eggcorn door cracks open a little. In examples such as this:
An article repository: “If there is still one silver of hope, you should not destroy that hope.â€
The writer might be re-imaging the idiom “sliver of hope†as a valuable (silver) hope to have. But I wouldn’t bet the house on the eggcorn status of this substitution.
What about this switch, though?
A blogish sort of post “I guess the sliver lining, if you really squint, is that at least there’s something making companies look at network/app security, and any long journey starts with the first step.â€
The lining of a cloud that lies between you and the sun is a thin band, a sliver of brightness. A Google search for “sliver lining†brings up many thousands of hits and many hundreds of unique examples of the error. It seems likely that some users of the phrase “sliver lining†have misread “silver lining†in a highly tendentious way. Perhaps we do have a sliver/silver eggcorn.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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There is some silver of hope for this one. Your title was inspired!
The silver sliver link led me to salver, and then a salver/slaver switch. I was intrigued to learn that the word salver, for the silver tray on which Jeeves presents you your porto, or delivers you a calling card, is from the same root as salvation. It refers to that practice of asking the servants to save the royals by performing a personal bioassay of food or drink, to betray the presence of poisons (link). There are multiple examples of referring to trays as slavers, perhaps in reference for their use for side dishes.
Import/export site:
China Wholesale Center > Wood, Wicker, Bamboo >Bamboo Mesh Slaver
(http://www.okokchina.com/p/bamboo-mesh- … 68538.html)
Worthopedia Price Guide:
ENGLISH SILVER SLAVER, 1910.
(http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/e … ver-slaver)
Maybe there is some deeper connection between “slaver”, i.e. slobber, and “salivate”, but I have a sudden urge to get a snack.
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“Salver” is mickle strange, but at least we still hear the word once in a while. Not so with the name for a platter that shows up in the KJV version of the tale about Salome and John the Baptist. Salome did her dance and asked for John’s head “on a charger.” This old name for a serving platter is largely defunct-the most recent citation in the OED is from the 1850s.
The etymology of “charger” isn’t hard to puzzle out. To charge something means to load it, so a charger was a plate used for carrying a large load of food to the table. English no longer uses “charge” in the sense of “loading,” except with reference to electrical capacitance (“charge the batteries”). The connection to loading is much clearer in French, where charger has kept its more general meaning.
Last edited by kem (2009-06-14 20:10:30)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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If you’re out buying expensive china, you can still purchase “chargers”. These are usually decorative plates intended to have another plate or bowl put on top of them. (Or I think I’ve also seen them removed from the place setting before the actual dinner plate is set down in its place.
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Is the “charge†in a bullet or cartridge an obsolete word/concept?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Is the “charge†in a bullet or cartridge an obsolete word/concept?
That’s another context in which “charge” has retained its sense of “load.” With a taser or the fictional phaser the two specialized contexts-that of a battery and that of a weapon-merge.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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