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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2009-06-20 12:34:33

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2872

rag << >> rug

This week I received an email from a correspondent who learned English as a second language. It contained the phrase: “I pulled the rag from under…” A quick search on the web turns up several more examples of the exchange of “rag” for “rug” in the idiom “pull the rug from under.”

Not a great eggcorn, in my opinion. “Rag” loses the dynamic picture presented by yanking away a piece of carpet.

Possibly “rag” and “rug” are switched with some frequency. Here, for example, are web examples that replace “rag” with “rug” in three idioms:

Ad for CD: “original tunes from blues, rugtime, to BlueG. ”

Blog entry: “They are a rugs to riches story and they raised their children very well”

Web fiction: “[He] saw that whole city was decorated with Japanese lanterns and flowers and people dressed in glad rugs abounded in the streets.”


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#2 2009-06-20 15:39:11

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

Re: rag << >> rug

If I ever decide I need to wear a rug, I hope it will be a glad rug, and not a sad one.

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#3 2009-06-21 02:33:39

edward23
Member
Registered: 2009-06-21
Posts: 1

Re: rag << >> rug

Yeah I Agree

Last edited by edward23 (2009-06-21 02:35:30)

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#4 2009-06-21 08:27:24

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2752
Website

Re: rag << >> rug

The biography of a successful perruquier would be a rugs-to-riches story?


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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