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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
PERPETUATE crime (vs. perpetrate crime)
This eggcorn is difficult to enumerate because there are websites that correctly speak about societal factors that perpetuate (sustain) crime. On occasion, however, writers will use “perpetuate” when refering to an individual’s actions or plans to commit crime. In that context “perpetrate” would be the appropriate choice. See examples below, and please, someone correct me if I have erred in my analysis. -Joe Krozel
Off-campus safety addressed in Bonistall lectureOur goal with the organization is to empower students and their families to be more proactive in safeguarding themselves against those who perpetuate crime …
www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2006/may/bonistall050506.html – 14k – Cached – Similar pages
Digital HistoryAnd live but to perpetuate crime and misery.” One minute’s walk from that Broadway-point of wealth, commerce, and enjoyment, will place him in another …
www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/do_history/yo … overty.cfm – 81k – Cached – Similar pages
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I slipped into the above confusion this month in a piece I was writing. As I was editing the piece I noticed that I had used “perpetrate†in a context that called for “perpetuate.â€
This switch runs in the opposite direction from the one mentioned in Joe’s old post. Since “perpetrate†almost always requires a negative object (hoax, fraud, crime, violence, murder) and “perpetuate,†while liking aspersion-casting objects (myth, problem, stereotype), is also be constrained by positive objects (memory, species, family), it would be quite difficult to say with certainty that someone had mistakenly substituted “perpetuate†for “perpetrate†– a Venn diagram would show the “perpetuate†uses encompassing the “perpetrate†contexts. Both of Joe’s citations, for example, could arguably be valid instances of “perpetuate†and not slips for “perpetrate.†When the switch travels in the other direction, however, as it did in my unedited document, we can say with more confidence that the user has substituted the wrong word. That is, if we find “perpetrate” with a positive object, as in perpetrate the species or perpetrate the memory of, then we are probably looking at an eggcornical switch.
The two words and their confusion are frequently mentioned on web sites. See the Pain in the English forum and the MWDEU.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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