Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
To keep tabs on someone means to follow their activities closely, to keep them under surveillance. This colloquial form, perhaps from tabulation, appeared in American English at the end of the 19th century. It’s probably related to a restaurant or hotel tab, for the itemized check or bill.
The O.E. word tæppa, from GMC roots, gave rise to tap, originally just a stopper, and then a faucet. The first record of tapping a phone line is from the 1920s. Keep taps on is more than a blend; it presents an eggcornish shift in imagery.
Beta software:
Think about it, if I were building an OS and I had some people that were testing, I know someone will make a copy and pass it for others to see what’s in it and I would secretly keep taps on it to see what the feed back is so I can make it better, it’s part of the process.
(http://www.thehotfix.net/forums/lofiver … 22979.html)
Mobile phone RSS feed:
That way, my feeds are up-to-date whether I read them on my desktop or my phone – I never see the same item listed twice as Google keep taps on what I’ve read already.
(http://n95blog.com/reading-rss-feeds-on … o-you-use/)
Matrimonial introductions site:
Do you keep a tap on the success of marriages made on your website?
Yes, we definitely keep a track on the success of the marriages made through our website. But it is very difficult to keep in touch with them on a long-term basis to know how well they are fairing in their marriage.
(http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=125394)
Mash your activity into one feed:
I went ahead and added my tumblelog, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Last.fm, and Delicious feeds, and here is what FriendFeed made for me (web-based embed version). Neat. In today’s day where every social network is trying to get you to exclusively use their service, and with the growing ubiquity of tens of them out there, a service like FriendFeed is very useful and to keep a tap on people’s lives.
(http://www.rev2.org/2008/02/11/friendfe … -one-feed/)
PC phone account:
Users can also keep a tap on their telephone expenditures by signing into their account frequently.
(http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pc-phone … ur-pc.html)
Last edited by burred (2009-07-02 07:39:43)
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I’m sure your analysis is right-the fundamental and significant imagery shift comes from the sense of tap that refers to tapping into (e.g., a phone line).
But the other sense of the verb tap, to rap lightly, might also be at work in this eggcorn. Tapping something at a regular interval can be a way to keep it working, or to check to see if it’s working.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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