Eggcorn Forum

Seersucker is a lightweight fabric – usually a striped cotton or linen – that has a distinctive puckered or wrinkled appearance. Its lightness and “breathability” make it a natural for summer wear in hot, humid climates; for some decades before the advent of air-conditioning, seersucker jackets were a hallmark of the Southern American gentleman. Today, as a number of my citations below attest, seersucker often seems a bit déclassé, at least where adult clothing is concerned: the combination of a panama hat and a seersucker suit has come to embody the “shabby genteel” look.

The Wikipedia article on “seersucker” gives this (grammatically imperfect) explanation for the origins of “seersucker”:

The word came into English from Hindi, which originates from the Persian words “shir o shekar,” meaning “milk and sugar”, probably from the resemblance of its smooth and rough stripes to the smooth surface of milk and bumpy texture of sugar.

“Seersucker” has the feel of a good English compound, but its elements are semantically opaque, making it ripe for eggcornification. The most widespread reshaping – and the one with perhaps the best claim to eggcornicity – is “sheersucker.” The material is in fact relatively sheer, so this single-yolked eggcorn works pretty well. Examples:

Made from soft sheersucker fabric in 50% cotton and 50% polyester, it has a five button neck opening and a pretty Brodiery Anglaise trim.
http://www.clootietree.com/Adaptive_Nightwear.htm

Some of these were made of sheersucker material that is a non-iron material.
http://letztravel.blogspot.com/2009/02/ … day-4.html

Could anything be more embarassing than getting caught in the rain en route to a garden party, and discovering that you now wear a sheersucker suit?
http://www.bakerinakitchens.com/index.p … bananacus/

In my search for a genyoowine double-yolker, I stumbled upon the reshaping “Sears sucker suit/jacket/etc.” This has real eggcorn potential – an outlet like Sears is precisely the sort of place that could become associated with seersucker clothing, and the people who wear “seersucker” might indeed look like “suckers” in the eyes of hipper folk. But that combination seems just a bit too cute and clever to be authentic in most cases. In the citations below, the instances where “Sears” is capitalized – which might have the best eggcorn potential – generally seem like puns (and that’s clearly the case in the final citation, an excerpt from a noirish mystery novel). Where “sears” isn’t capitalized, it’s unclear just what the writers were envisioning. In any case, “Sears sucker” might be a “Lehmann’s term” for some people. Examples:

I am thinking of buying Kaish a sears sucker suit this year. I don’t know why. I just think that sounds like a nice choice for Easter
http://lifeinmathews.blogspot.com/2009/ … onnet.html

He would wear a wrinkled sears-sucker suit and a really lame hat and drove around in a convertible yellow mustang. How rad is that?
http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/film/981/review
[I just knew Kolchak: The Night Stalker would make an appearance in my citations. Darren McGavin was the greatest actor of his time. If there are any other fans out there, this citation is from a pretty entertaining review of the Night Stalker DVD.]

It’s a parody of the 1970s Night Stalker TV show, where an intrepid reporter in a Sears sucker suit and straw hat investigates a series of supernatural murders.
http://thewrapper.tripod.com/oddball03.html

I’ve got to run, it’s time for me to put on my Sears sucker suit, I’ve got to look like I fit in with these rich folks here in Dubai.
http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/Allia … 01/29.html

Watch out for the little guy in the Sears Sucker suit.
http://forums.torah.org/viewtopic.php?t … cc67619ce9

Except maybe his fat fuck computer geek friend from the software store, that he wouldn’t be caught dead with in a place like this, lest the loserosity rub off on him and show up on his Sears sucker jacket. He’ll stand there, just like that. For an hour. Or two. Nobody will talk to him. ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=vYF49s … t&resnum=5
[from Drawing Dead by Grant McCrea – 2009 – Fiction – 400 pages]

I think my favorite of the reshapings I’ve found is “seasucker,” though I’m not fully convinced it’s an eggcorn. “Sea” and “sucker” certainly go well together, but like the writer of my final example, I’m not sure what that collocation has to do with the fabric itself. Perhaps the absorbent qualities of cotton are in the minds of reshapers. Examples:

bq. I would go for a seasucker suit pimp cane and a large purple fur fedora.
http://coornelius.blogspot.com/2008/05/ … asual.html

3 piece set including a seasucker shirt, a t-shirt and pants – all color coordinated and with a similar design
http://www.baby-markt.de/KANZ_Jungen_An … _lshop.htm

Grenouille blue white & beige cotton seasucker jacket L
http://feedback.ebay.com.sg/ws/eBayISAP … world=true

This is an cotton lycra top with cotton seasucker suitable for a 24month old, give or take a little. I am hoping I worote that correctly as I have never heard of a seasucker and I don’t see why it would be called that but that is what imacsimum says it is.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/nz/auction-53274542.htm

There are a few instances out there of “sheerpucker” – potentially a nice reference to the texture of “seersucker,” but it may or may not be a different fabric:

Made with a fun flower seer-pucker fabric and accented in white to make it pop!
http://www.jodiebs.com/catalog/product_ … ucts_id=33

There is another possible explanation for Bush’s stumbles (other than stupidity). A worker of mine uses incorrect (but similar) words, while correctly understanding the situation. Some substitutions: prostrate for prostate, Cadillac for catalytic, defected for defective, seerpucker for seersucker.
http://boards.history.com/topic/Current … /800029645

Oh, the things I’ve learned while eggcorn-hunting. The American Capitol could be pretty hot and muggy until air-conditioning appeared in the 1950s, and before that point senators – especially those from the South and Northeast – would show up for work in seersucker suits during the summer months. In 1996, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi introduced the tradition of “Seersucker Thursday”: on the second or third Thursday of June, senators are invited to show up in the traditional formal summer wear of the South. I’m sure you need to know more, so the Wikipedia article is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seersucker_Thursday

Last edited by patschwieterman (2009-08-02 23:44:49)