Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
‘Axillary” means “to do with armpits” so what thought process would lead someone away from the (I’d have thought) more familiar ‘auxiliary’?
“Verb phrases comprise the verb and an axillary verb.In this case, the verb is “shuffling†and the axillary verb is “are.â€
“Can” is the axillary verb of ability – Can you swim? Can you help me with this question?”
A lot of the Google hits seem to be by people with a pretty good idea of what these things are, but not what they are called.
On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
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I have wondered if it was some kind of contamination (blending) from ancillary . But who knows— ancillary is hardly such a well-known word that you would expect it to have that kind of influence.
*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 think it’s just a combination of bad spelling with some misunderstanding of the pronunciation. This country has become pretty bad at both.
Bruce
“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin
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You may be right but “axillary services” googles quite satisfactorily, making the confusion with “ancillary” a possibility. And there’s a lot of “ancillary verb” about, just to add to the fog:
On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
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