Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
The significant other of a friend of mine made this verbal slip-up tonight, which said friend promptly told me about. That, of course, led me to Google it to see how many other people have made the same mistake.
And, not accounting for any pages that include the misspelling so as to direct people to the correct word, there are 39,000 hits for the incorrect version of the phrase.
It’s a perfectly understandable mistake; “ligation” is a very uncommon word outside of the OB/GYN’s office, while “litigation” is a far more common term.
Edited to add: Looks like I was beaten to this eggcorn by Celticred63 back in 2007.
Last edited by codeman38 (2010-02-03 23:10:49)
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On April 1st, 1992 I went into the hospital to have what I thought would be a routine tuba ligation after giving birth to my second child [...] after giving birth to my little watermelon I really did not want to have anymore children so. The tuba ligation.
codeman, many of the sites that appear to include a misspelling so as to direct the people to the correct word are underhanded advertising sites, that have stolen boilerplate copy from elsewhere, and added eggcornish errors, in order to catch traffic spilling off the sides of the popular correctly-spelled phrase.
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Tubal ligation is of course what women have. What men have makes a vas deferens.
Very, very sorry.
On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
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No, you’re just misunderstanding. Tubal litigation is when you sue your body for becoming pregnant after having your tubes tied.
Tuba ligation, of course, is a common reaction to hearing the instrument played.
“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin
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