Eggcorn Forum

kem · 2010-01-01 00:03:07

The bell sounds and the year 2009 ends. Happy New Year to members of the Eggcorn Forum!

Time to think back over the last year and pick our favs. In this and the next three posts I have listed alphabetically 800 eggcorn candidates from our 2009 posts.

Each entry gives the eggcorn candidate in the form â€œeggcorn << acornâ€ (unless the expressions are hidden eggcorns, in which case they are marked as [hidden]). The proposer of the candidate is given after the vertical bar ( | ). Each entry is a hot link to the relevant thread. Entries with an asterisk at the end are eggcorns that were added to the Eggcorn Database in 2009 and that were not cited in the forum prior to January 1, 2009.

A word of caution. These are eggcorn candidates that I have gleaned from our 2009 posts, not necessarily eggcorns. If it were up to me to make the final call, I could cross out a couple of hundred of these candidates as either non-eggcorns or eggcorns with such a minimal claim to being eggcorns they should not be included. For fear of leaving out some word or expression that one of our forum members might think is an eggcorn, however, I have erred on the side of inclusiveness, omitting only those candidates that were renounced by the proposer or that were rare and undocumented. If you use this list to pick out favorites (as I hope you will), you should check the relevant thread for each entry you want to include in your own lists—in some of the threads you may find posted responses making arguments that the expression in question is not an eggcorn.
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Eggcorn Candidates Beginning with A-C:

Last edited by kem (2010-01-02 01:00:27)

kem · 2010-01-01 00:04:32

Eggcorn Candidates Beginning with D-L:

Last edited by kem (2010-01-02 01:13:24)

kem · 2010-01-01 00:06:05

Eggcorn Candidates Beginning with M-R:

Last edited by kem (2010-01-01 16:10:12)

kem · 2010-01-01 00:08:06

Eggcorn Candidates Beginning with S-Z:

Last edited by kem (2010-01-01 16:11:04)

patschwieterman · 2010-01-01 02:19:14

Wow. That’s an astonishing amount of work, Kem. Thanks so much for doing all this. Having the alphabetization and hot links is great.

And what a load of reshapings. I’m not planning on posting for a few days, and I’m glad I’ve got the time—whittling all this down to 20 is going to take some thought.

One small correction—I posted “stingma.”

Okay, the calendar changed a few minutes ago for me and Kem, the westernmost of the regulars. Game over. Happy New Year, everybody!

David Bird · 2010-01-01 11:49:05

Happy New Year to all!

Great job, Kem. I might actually be able to wade my way into the heap in this format. Faced with the evidence laid out end-to-end, I’m taken aback.

Small corrections – shout of a doubt is David T’s, prubenda -> pubenda.

Reduce this to 20 you say. Impossible, but it should be a lot of fun trying. I’ve already had a lot of laughs just skimming over this list.

kem · 2010-01-01 16:54:51

Corrections made.

OK, now for the the top 20. Don’t know what you are whining about, David. I just went through the 800 candidates and picked out the best.

And they are…

Wait a minute, I’ve got 120 on my list! %$#%^@. How in the world am I supposed to throw out 100 of them?

This is going to take a while. In the meantime, my candidate for the SNOT award for the most under-our-noses, fruit-on-the-bottom-branch sighting this year is

eyeris << iris by Pat

Last edited by kem (2010-01-01 16:55:55)

klakritz · 2010-01-01 19:53:23

It’s an amazing list and, yet again, we’re spoiled for choice in having to select a top 20. But before putting out my selection, I’d like to acknowledge and reproduce Kem’s short poem, which I thought was the cleverest and most charming item to appear in the forum this year:

Ode to a Hidden Eggcorn

There is no wood in woodchuck,
No cock in cockatoo.
Halt in halter? Never!
No good in â€œGoodbye, Sue.â€

When it comes to kissing
the lipless tulip fails.
And Genesis is wrong:
females arenâ€™t made from males.

Donâ€™t try to chow on chowder.
Witch hazel names no witch.
The fish they find in crayfish
will make no fishers rich.

Seeking worms in wormwood
is just a waste of time.
The house you see in penthouse?
Nothing but a rhyme.

Donâ€™t pull the pull in pulleys
or look for pests in pester.
Popinjays are sad â€™cause
Pop and jays arenâ€™t guests there.

Kid gloves for kids, you say?
I say â€œPoppycock!â€â€”
an oath whose cocks donâ€™t crow,
whose poppies have no stalk.

Mary has no rosemary,
nor does her sister Rose.
Who put the bad in badminton
Not even Webster knows.

Now, on to my top 20:

add(ing) salt to injury
bait noir
bone constrictor
carrot before the horse
confluted
creosoot
dried in the wool
endiron
epee pen
flitillary butterfly
hide your light under a bush
hottie attitude
jolted lover
last dish effort
nudest colony
petty annie
pubenda
quirky keyboard
rump in the hay
teasane.

Since everyone is irrationally attached to their own discoveries, I’ve refrained from placing any of my own finds on the best-of list. But here are my personal favorites;

bald plate
dully noted
hermitically sealed
leap of fate
pom and circumstance
redeemiation
solid days

jorkel · 2010-01-01 22:34:55

Great Scot(t)! Awesome assembly of items, Kem. My favorite feature this year was the folk etymology lessons. Plus, I’m a big fan of hidden (stealth) eggcorns.

My favorite eggcorns have a number of characteristics:
First, they should be relatively widespread … not mishearing of a single individual.
Second, they should be plausible reshapings … with as little strain from the original.
Third, they should move in the direction of increased familiarity or concreteness.
(Concreteness is not an essential element of eggcorns, but it tends to generate the most marvelous reshaping of imagery).

So, following Ken’s lead, I’ll point out contributions made by others (rather than my own) which are my favorites of 2009:

Cattle wrestler (rustler)
Skin graph (graft)
Nematoads (-todes)
Pattern leather (patent)
Unfeathered access (unfettered)
Confection oven (convection)
Molehair sweater (mohair)
Bear-caged (barricaded)
Gentles (genitals)
Country pumpkin (bumpkin)
Eyeris (iris)
Lunch-in (luncheon)
Woman eyesing (-izing)
Four-stair heating (forced air)
Have it down flat (pat)
Purger oneself (perjure)
Prize oneself (pride or prides)
Sure pleasure (sheer)
To the nail (tooth and…)
Taste bugs (buds)
Concensus (consensus)—originated as my mistake

Last edited by jorkel (2010-01-02 00:07:32)

Peter Forster · 2010-01-02 04:41:03

I’d like to endorse all the praise for Kem’s hard work in so thoroughly condensing a whole year of collection and speculation. Thanks too for the folk etymology series – I hope you and others who post items of not necessarily eggcornish interest don’t mistake the lack of replies for lack of appreciation. I enjoy them immensely, for example, but am unable to add anything worth adding so I don’t.

If I lost this list of my 20 favourites and allowed a few weeks to pass before choosing again, I’m pretty sure that most of them would change. And, on reflection, I think that should have been minutes rather than weeks.

all held broke loose (hell)
rosemary beads (rosary)
hermitically sealed (hermetically)
abdomain (abdomen)
nibbling doubt (niggling)
low man on the token pole (totem)
well-warmed path (-worn)
stingma (stigma)
deafly quiet (deathly)
eyeris (iris)
scrapnel (shrapnel)
harm-fisted (ham)
climbatis (clematis)
rule brick (rubric)
by the same talking (token)
blow zero (below)
ostrichized (ostracized)
sleep of the tongue (slip)
macho shark (mako)
flittillary butterfly (frittillary)

kem · 2010-01-02 13:00:53

Just couldn’t get my list down to 20 favs. I thought I detected a natural gap at the 30 mark, so I’ll let that stand as my minimum in this remarkable year. The best 30 posted by others are (cue drum roll):

My own 2009 submissions are hard to sort throughâ€“too close to the birthing process. Here are five that embody the most objective criteria I can apply:

Last edited by kem (2010-01-02 13:51:10)

David Bird · 2010-01-02 15:09:20

Before I get to my own picks, I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say sincere thanks to Pat for his from-all-evidence relentless behind-the-scenes spammer war (sounds like sci-fi, doesn’t it), and his judicious and insightful comments on top of his own contributions. Appreciated!

I’ve cleverly outflanked the “Top 20” limits by generating a couple of other categories. In passing, submitting later than others permits me the satisfaction of seeing that most of the entries that I had originally included as finalists have been acknowledged above.

First and formest , with everyone else I have to acknowledge Kem for his many exquisite pullet surprise hidden and deep time eggcorns. I try without success to restrain my enthusiasm for these throughout the year. A true potlatch of riches.

My top twenty eggcorns included only one of my own, and not by modesty. One clucks over one’s own nest of eggcorns but I find myself more astonished and appreciative of the community of entries.
hermitically for hermetically sealed: I was stunned to learn that hermetic had nothing to do with hermits.
exposed facto for ex post facto: It may have been inspired by hall-of-famer ifso facto, but sweet nonetheless.
body house for bawdy house: better than the original
love portion for love potion
umbellical and unbiblical cords
headonist for hedonist
steamy for seamy underbelly
bearcaged for barricaded: all the more precious for its rarity, we had evidence of two separate birth events.
good calmer for karma: fits within Joe’s “minimum strain” criterion in the nonrhotic lands
nothing to ride home about
hottie attitude
macho shark
Pom and circumstance: I gave this one the “straight-face delivery” award, too.
oustercised for ostracized
out of wedluck
riding hurt on
solid days
vagabound
veryclose veins
wheel burro

Good laughs
Craig Clarke’s connection of “full pantic” to full pants
“heat stinking missile” to describe an errant golf ball | David Tuggy
nudest colony | David Tuggy
locating “ham” in hammeroid | Peter
at nauseum | Kem
ball-point hammer | Pat; Peter | ball-pain hammer
bowl movement | Kem
cold-conk | Kem
dandroof | burred

What the! awards. Congratulations to the following for passing the limits of the Earthbound imagination.
dilly delay
Doubly surround system
earthquick
encaged for engaged
eyelip for eyelid: as Kem said, surreal
feeble position
four-stair heating
gossip proof/gospel truth
highly steamed people
molehair sweater
nemotoads and nanotoads: I can’t get over these. Incredible, and how wonderful to imagine the world through the eyes of those who coined them.
law-obeding: say that again?
nay for nÃ©e: priceless.

Natural corns
sure for sheer
tub for tug boat
untrampled/untrammeled
youman being
stuck still
old sore for old saw
.
Most interesting injection of significance into an apparently opaque syllable
compull for compel
moral perpitude for turpitude
bankrobbed for bankrupt

Finally, the high points for me include the outrageous replies that use the original post as a jumping off point. One of the pinnacles: I entered “cold sack” for cul-de-sac. Peter found the comparative “colder sack”, and Kem the superlative, “coldest sack”. A moment of eggcorn glee.

Last edited by David Bird (2010-01-02 15:55:26)

jorkel · 2010-01-02 16:26:35

The eggcorns which I found most humorous in 2009 are these:
Deafly quiet
Deftifying
I probably should’ve added them to my favorites list.

I’m not sure I understand the WTF category fully, but I would define it as reshapings that sound just like the original but fall short of being eggcorns because the imagery makes no sense at all…
Playing ketchup is something we’ve all heard and wondered about …until we realized that it was really playing catchup.

Finally, there were numerous reshapings that sounded so different from the originals that I found it impossible to believe they were accidental. I felt we had too many of this type of “find” in 2009. Whenever I read these—and sounded them out in my head—I couldn’t help but think they were made up. My hope for 2010 is that we pay closer attention to the sound component of our proposed eggcorns.

Last edited by jorkel (2010-01-02 16:26:54)

kem · 2010-01-02 17:31:54

Looking over our candidate list of 2009 eggcorns, I see that the contributors fall into three groups. Seven regulars in this forum suggested about 85% of the candidates. Individual totals in this exclusive group range from 10% to 30%. A second group of semi-regulars-five or six people-each contributed from 0.3 to 1% of the total (Their contributions to our discussions, though, were usually more significant than the number of their candidate eggcorns might suggest.). This leaves a third group of one-time (usually first-time) posters who contributed about 10% of the candidates. I think this is comparable to the 2008 figures.

More statistics: We started, or added to, about 700 threads in 2009 and averaged a bit more than 3 posts per thread. Posts typically embraced 200 words of prose and citations, so we expanded the web by a third of a million words in 2009. Those of us who perused every post read the equivalent of about three novels.

The statistic that I find the most surprising is that first-timers contributed about 1 out of every 10 of the eggcorn candidates. As Pat has pointed out before, we derive significant benefit from those who brave the registration process in order to mention something odd that they have heard or read. Hats off to them, wherever they have gone.

Last edited by kem (2010-12-14 17:36:46)

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#1 2010-01-01 00:03:07

Best of 2009

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Re: Best of 2009

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