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Chris -- 2025-05-10
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.â€
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. â€
Blog entry: “They are a rugs to riches story and they raised their children very wellâ€
Web fiction: “[He] saw that whole city was decorated with Japanese lanterns and flowers and people dressed in glad rugs abounded in the streets.â€
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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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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Yeah I Agree
Last edited by edward23 (2009-06-21 02:35:30)
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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* .
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