Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
quote from an email (with identifying element Xed out):
“With respect to early alerts, XXXX wants to recommend fusing
the athletic divisions’ evaluation and other evaluations, so faculty
get one set of requests. Further, the names of people who need support
or goating would be forwarded to a person who would follow up.”
when someone asked about the term, the writer replied,
“Perhaps “to goat” is a regional term. We used it out
west to mean “to prod or poke” to get animals or people
to move when they really did not want to do so. The person
who poked or prodded matched the animal or person prodded in
persistence and stubborness.”
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We like eggcorns that come, as this one does, right from the horse’s (goat’s?) mouth.
There is a 2006 discussion of this substitution here: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=975
Pat offered other interesting goat/goad confusions in 2007, here and here.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Very nice! And to have the writer’s confirmation that it was standard for him (/her) and his (/her) explanation of it is icing on the gravy, so to speak.
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The title of the post sounds like you (lklopfer—welcome, btw) picture the goat as at the pointed end of the prodding implement. Still—it sort of sounds like the writer was saying that those on both ends of the prod are goat-like. A goat prodding a matching goat? Is the goater prodding the other one with his horns? (Can we call the more passive participant the goatee , do you suppose?)
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Anyway, I’m tickled with this substitution. (My collection of “goat†reshapings —most of them blends, many one-offs— is one of my favorites. It also includes such jewels as “He really gets under my goatâ€, “going off on a wild goat chaseâ€, “that would really stick in her goatâ€, and so forth.)
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2010-02-06 03:00:34)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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David Tuggy wrote:
(My collection of “goat†reshapings —most of them blends, many one-offs— is one of my favorites. It also includes such jewels as “He really gets under my goatâ€, “going off on a wild goat chaseâ€, “that would really stick in her goatâ€, and so forth.)
When I was in college the first time, a friend of mine told me a story about her dad and “goat” phrases. He was a non-native speaker of English, and his grasp on the tongue always got a little looser when he was angry. One time he was arguing with his wife and my friend, and in response to their disagreement he yelled, “You’re really rubbing my goat the wrong way!” Unsurprisingly, that reduced the women to giggles, annoying him further.
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Wonderful!
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I’ve read this site for a long time, but this was the first time I had anything good enough to post. I’m glad it was welcome.
Last edited by lklopfer (2010-02-05 20:42:51)
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