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Chris -- 2018-04-11
From a student response to John McPhee’s essay, “Silk Parachute”: “McPhee’s mother…[took] him out to see planes in blow zero degree weather.”
I fervently hope this isn’t just a misspelling; McPhee’s essay mentions the “icy wind” in this scene, and I think the student may have morphed this into “blow zero.” Moreover, we are in the South, where “below zero” weather is pretty much unheard of. What do y’all think?
Last edited by CatherineR (2009-09-16 11:52:12)
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Works well for me – I think it might be one of those low-hanging fruits we keep finding despite declaring the orchard empty. There are dozens of examples and although many must result from mis-typing, I suspect that some are genuinely eggcornish:
Well, if you think 16 blow zero is cold, today in MOntreal, it is going feel like -29 with the wind chill!!!!!!!!! GVD! ...
comment.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user… – Cached
Imagine, trees surviving arctic nights at a hundred blow zero with wind! One person, not watching his feet, could wipe out an entire forest in a couple of …
bradenfiles.wordpress.com/white-nights-in-the-high-desert/ – Cached
Her efforts to communicate sometimes resulted in “Mama-isms,†her own word inventions like, “Blow zero†(colder than zero degrees Fahrenheit), “Hotsy totsy …
www.kythera-family.net/index.php?nav=6-14&cid=5… – Cached
Big fans blast frigid air, driving the temperature down to 31 degrees blow zero Fahrenheit. “It’s as warm as it gets in the wintertime in Antarctica,” ...
www.telluridewatch.com/pages/full_story/push?... – Cached
Last edited by Peter Forster (2009-09-17 02:48:30)
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Nice. “Tone death,” “rule brick,” and now “blow zero.” You’re on a roll!
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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LOL. I’d forgotten about “tone death.” It all comes from teaching Freshman English.
CR
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