Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I have seen this on many menus. I’m new to this, so I am not sure that this is a true eggcorn. I believe the origin for this is lazy pronunciation, failing to give appropriate enunciation of both consonants (“d” and “t”) in this combination. Anyway, here it is!
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Welcome, lawmel. This kind of thing is a point of contention among us at times. I’m convinced that grammar is in general meaningful, and thus inclined to be somewhat sympathetic to the view that a slight grammatical change like this one, be it inspired by lazy pronunciation or not, can constitute a kind of acorn. But I think we’re all in agreement that it is at best a subtle, not-very-striking sort of meaning change, and thus this would be, if an acorn at all, not a first-class one. Still, you’re demonstrating a good ear, and this is certainly a real variant.
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I seem to remember (though I’m too lazy/busy to look it up at the moment) that what we now call ice cream was originally iced cream ; I would assume the etymological path would be parallel.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Just like ‘skimmed milk’ turned into ‘skim milk.’
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Serendipitously, this is being discussed on the Language Log:
On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
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