Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
The Eggcorn Forum and the Eggcorn Database are currently in the process of being converted into static sites.
Once the conversion is complete, all existing posts are expected to still be accessible at their original URLs. However, no new posts will be possible.
Feel free to comment on the relevant forum threads.
Chris -- 2025-05-10
I hope that after a false start I’m more on the right track with this one. I can’t find it in the database and Googling “poultry” or “paltry” and “eggcorn” brings up nothing relevant. However, it has been a play on words on numerous occasions, if Google is anything to go by, so some of the times it crops up may be tongue-in-cheek, and there is a small pronunciation difference. Though not perhaps for everybody?
On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
Offline
It’s a very funny switch. Some might be tongue-in-cheek, others are malapropisms, but you have to wonder what’s running through the heads of those who use it earnestly. Maybe the idea is that the “a poultry amount” or “the poultry sum” is just chicken feed?
Offline
Nice that Mr Bird weighed in on this…
I think it’s more a malapropism, but there is a subtle hint of this being as unimportant as poultry.
A little bit like Joey’s explanation of “a moo (sic) point” on Friends:
Joey: All right, Rach. The big question is, “does he like you?” All right? Because if he doesn’t like you, this is all a moo point.
Rachel: Huh. A moo point?
Joey: Yeah, it’s like a cow’s opinion. It just doesn’t matter. It’s moo.
Rachel: Have I been living with him for too long, or did that all just make sense?
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will buy a ridiculous hat – Scott Adams (author of Dilbert)
Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day; set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life – Terry Pratchett
http://blog.meteorit.co.uk
Offline