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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I myself made this mistake until I was about 15, not realising that the written word (which I’d assumed was pronounced as “all bait”) was the same thing as this three word phrase which I apparently kept hearing.
It’s hard to search for examples due to interference from the pattern “Be it X or be it Y”, and I’ve only managed to find the following:
Searching for “or be it” “albeit” brings up http://lem.localinet.co.uk/phpBB2/viewt … b56#128636 (“I know a bar in the RLD who lets you skin up with tobbaco,Or be it for a small donation to pay any fines!”)
Searching for “or be it they” brings up http://www.cli.nsw.edu.au/cli/scienceta … o_text.htm (“So, in a way there’s big parallels or be it they’re interested for very different reasons.”)
“Searching for “or be it I” brings up http://forums.zybez.net/topic/1333780-b … o-workout/ (Three examples from same writer, including ”... we’d do HIIT towards the end of the session or be it a modified version of HIIT for sprinters.”)
Perhaps others can use Google more creatively than me.
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I’m convinced this is an eggcorn, but it’s hard to find examples: I keep coming up with paired constructions “Be it … or be it …” (One has to wonder if some of those usages we inspired by “albeit” in the first place. This category would include the usage of “elegant speech” when “eloquent speech” is the more likely precedent).
This one is iffy:
Apologies | Articulated Sky Or Be it the price of a coffee, or a penny sweet, any donations will be greatly appreciated and will go towards making Articulated Sky even better!
articulatedsky.com/2009/10/02/apologies/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm… · Cached page
But, this one seems legit:
“What does “being brainwashed” mean, and aren’t” | MySpace Forums Or be it the accompaniment of an idea by a warm smile from a face one trusts. One may acquire an idea simply because he would like it if it were true or by any other such non …
forums.myspace.com/p/4677342/66168696.aspx?fuseaction=forums.viewpost · Cached page
Last edited by jorkel (2010-02-03 08:22:26)
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I’m afraid in your first example, the “Or” is a header from the previous line, and your second example is just a “be it X or be it Y” split across two sentences.
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You’re right smyth… I didn’t check those too carefully. Back to the drawing board.
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I am sure I have run across this before, though I did not (to my surprise) find it in my database. In any case, we have smyth’s own testimony here, which to my mind is worth more than dozens of Internet citations where we have to guess what the perpetrators were thinking.
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What we need to look for in those citations, of course, is a context that makes it clear that the meaning is “even though (it is/be)†rather than just “(as) alternatively (spoken)â€. The “tobbaco†shop example seems pretty clear to me, the others less so.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2010-02-03 12:28:47)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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You’re right David: if we change the context too much, then we’ve really lost the eggcorn because the reshaping can stand on its own—if we could still call it a “reshaping” in those cases.
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Two more:
Interview transcript: “So there is still risk of downward pressure on yields over the next couple of years or be it with slowing capacity growth. ”
Blog entry: “This lead to the very much alive H.C. Brooks having his name ( or be it with a mistaken initial) added to the City of London Yeomanry memorial”
Last edited by kem (2010-02-03 14:06:52)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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