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Chris -- 2025-05-10
My project was underminded by my rival.
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My favorite was a friend confessing, with a devilish grin, that he was devious and underminded. I understood him to be claiming that he was wily but stupid.
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It’s a cute malaprop, but how does underminding work? Is it just the idea that the intellect (=mind) is involved in most kinds of undermining these days that makes sense? What’s the “under†doing? I don’t make good enough sense of this to see it as a good eggcorn. Also—is it standard for someone who construes it in such a sensible way?
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Hey, welcome, vexact.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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See also undermined/undermind/underminded and a series of posts on linguistlist, starting here, ending here
Finally, klakritz apparently posted something on undermine -> undermind in the olden section, but my searches don’t pick it up.
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