Eggcorn Forum

One Chris Hansen , an American expat living in the UK, reports via twitter an Annie Lehmann eggcorn that has escaped our attention. Hansen offers this quotation from an unnamed source: “Should be a good read for children of all ages 5 to 95 years in fact I guess everyone but a few fuddy dudleys.”

Fuddy dudley? The correct expression, of course, is “fuddy duddy,” a phrase that has called English home since the early decades of the twentieth century. A fuddy duddy, say the dictionaries, is an old-fashioned person, someone not in step with the latest trends.

I suspect the substitution of “dudley/duddly” for “duddy” derives from Dudley Do-Right, a cartoon character of the 1960s. Do-Right, who first appeared on segments embedded in the 1960s Rocky and Bulwinkle Show, was a Canadian Mountie who championed old-fashioned values. In the cartoons he would rescue the object of his amorous attentions, Nell Fenwick, from the clutches of the nasty Snidely Whiplash. Dudley was a funny and iconic fuddy duddy who taught us what a fuddy duddy was before many of us had even heard the phrase.

The “duddy/dudley” switch seems to be well-represented on web pages. Three examples from the dozens that appear in a Google search:

Forum post: “you just want to be a place like [Key West] in constant flux, and a lot of fun if not determined to be a fuddy duddly ”

Blog entry: “I walked away feeling bad for the ant strewer and traumatized forever because I am old and fuddy duddly and I saw anteaters having sex, for pity’s sake!”

Post on an Islam discussion board: “Microsoft to Mac User: you’re an elitst idiot for buying into marketing propaganda designed by a monomaniac. Come home to the old and fuddy-duddly .”

Last edited by kem (2009-10-30 13:53:33)