Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Google counts on Aug 13, 2006:
272,000 On that fateful day
567 On that FAITHFUL day
Analysis by Joe Krozel
The original phrase is “on that fateful day,” the meaning of which is understood. Perhaps the substitution “faithful” conjures up a hopeful image while “fateful” is all too ominous. Granted, there is no logical reason to attribute a human trait such as faithfulness to something inanimate like a “day”. Faith-inspiring perhaps? Who knows?
Examples…
ACKERMAN PRESENTS FRENCH WWII MEDAL TO HUNDREDS OF D-DAY VETERANS
... provide him with their discharge records so he could obtain for them, these distinguished medals that so many earned on that faithful day in June 1944. ...
http://www.house.gov/ackerman/press/frenchmedal.htm
Guardian Newspapers
“The rain on that faithful morning was light. So we are confused as to the source of the flood,†Aboderin told The Guardian. Also affected was Nosa Daniels, ...
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/weekend/article01
CNN.com – Transcripts
Every fire is just a routine almost, and yet, very much a reminder of what happened on that faithful day, and one more thing, Jack, political leaders, ...
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ … tm.17.html
Pacific News Service > News > Time Is Right for Another Milli…
We came to Washington on that faithful day, not to petition government for a civil rights bill or a handout, but to take responsibility for ourselves. ...
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_articl ... ac39cff01f05d767536706b6a9c040
Greatest Opening Film Lines and Quotes
And now for the first time we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that faithful day. We are giving you all the evidence, based only on …
http://www.filmsite.org/greatfirstlines.html
Talkin’ Videos: The Boondocks Archives
Last night’s episode, “The Return of the King,†posed the question: What if MLK hadn’t been killed on that faithful April day in Memphis? ...
http://blogs.sohh.com/videos/rapontv/the_boondocks/
168 Seconds of Silence in Oklahoma – HUD
Learn more about the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Oklahoma will never forget the children, friends, family and co-workers lost on that faithful day. ...
http://www.hud.gov/local/ok/library/arc … -05-10.cfm
Last edited by jorkel (Today 21:43:35)
Last edited by jorkel (2006-09-17 02:46:25)
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I just ran across this one independently:
“The time span of the first season is roughly sometime in 52 BCE to the faithful day March 14th, 44 BCE, the well renown Ides of March.”
From a review of the HBO series “Rome.”
Come to think of it, I’ve never seen “well renown” either. “Renowned” doesn’t need, and hardly ever takes, an intensifier. Could this be an eggcorn for “world renowned”?
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It almost sounds as if the speaker intended to say: ”..., the well KNOWN Ides of March.” But it’s probably equally as likely to be an eggcorn of ” ..., the WORLD renown Ides of March.” as you have suggested. I might even go so far as to suggest that it’s a little of both!
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“Well renowned” sounds a bit funny to me, too. It’s fairly widely used however—294k hits today. And there’s a “Well Renowned Hardware Store” for sale in Loudun, Tennessee, and a “Well Renowned Motor Co.” in Surrey, UK. (If any Forum readers in Surrey are looking for a job, Well Renowned is looking for a mechanic; you need good skills in relationship building.)
We’ve already got “reknowned” in the Database, so Jorkel may well be right in speculating that “well known” is causing some interference here.
But maybe part of the reason this sounds funny to us is because there seems to be a very short list of modifiers that monopolize “renowned.” Here are some other Google figures I just ran:
“internationally renowned”: 2.3 million hits
“world renowned”: 2.3 mil
“most renowned”: 1.16 mil
“well renowned”: 294k
“more renowned”: 122k
“highly renowned”: 87k
“less renowned”: 37.4k
“least renowned”: just 1320 hits
Looking at these numbers, I guess many people instinctively feel pervasiveness to be a central characteristic of renown, and they like best those modifiers that underscore that idea.
Another word that has a similar profile—probably for similar reasons—is “famous.” The gap is even more pronounced in that case: “world famous” gets 6 mil hits, but “well famous” only 25k.
And that reminds me of one of my favorite phrases in Icelandic. The word for “world famous” in Icelandic is “heimsfraegur.” But Icelanders have a delightful variation on it: “heimsfraegur a Islandi”—“world famous in Iceland,” meaning that everyone in Iceland has heard of the thing being talked about. Something just isn’t really famous unless the whole world knows about it—even if the world in question consists of no more than that cold, charming little island in the North Atlantic.
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