Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
My friend says this all the time: “I’m a little weary of trying that restaurant,” etc.
I like this eggcorn because it emphasizes a certain fatigue that can accompany being leery—it sort of captures the “oh no, not that crap again” aspect.
I saw a few online usages:
“Is anyone else a little weary about taking a cruise nowadays?”
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid= … 852AAGT8Oc
“Still a little weary” (of hurricanes)
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2005 … 24399.html
“Now, i’ve read up on how to dis-assemble it, but i’m still a little bit weary on dismembering my first vinyl toy.”
http://www.qeester.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5459
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I just found another one, on a website about the original Nathan’s Famous (hotdogs) in Coney Island:
“Unlike today, many of the passers-by were weary of anyplace that would sell its food at half the price found at Feltman’s, it certainly wasn’t the Coney tradition.”
Nathan Handwerker was selling his hot dogs for a nickel, Feltman’s for a dime. When I came along they were still only 20 cents, and I’ve never grown weary of them.
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I think we should be cautious about assigning blenditude or eggcornitude to weary for wary. Given its evident popularity, I think the chances are good that it is based on the pronunciation of wear versus the pronunciation of war, for those who aren’t familiar with the spelling of wary. So if there’s something eggcornical about it, we might look for connections to wear and not to weary as in fatigued. I can’t think of any link from cautious awareness to appearal.
Last edited by David Bird (2014-01-11 17:59:35)
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Good point. The sound difference is bridged, though, in the (uncommon) “lairy of”: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=620 It is possible that a blend with “leery” greases the move from “wary” to “weary.”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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