Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
“I don’t give a rap” is a standard idiom. As mentioned in the source below, it derives from “rap” which is an old-world counterfeit coin: one of no intrinsic value. So, “I don’t give a rap” means “I don’t care at all”. And this seems to inspire the eggcorn(?) phrase “I don’t give a rat’s _”.
rap – definition of rap by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus …The least bit: I don’t give a rap about office politics. I don’t care a rap what you do. [From obsolete rap, 18th-century Irish counterfeit halfpenny, ...
www.thefreedictionary.com/rap – 38k – Cached – Similar pages
Last edited by jorkel (2006-09-17 02:20:31)
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I’m afraid you’re going to have to be more explicit. I have no idea what vulgar phrase you’re referring to.
I think we’re all adults here. This stuff is far too boring for children.
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I agree with Jim. If I remember correctly, somewhere on the site our founder, Chris Waigl, asks posters not to indulge in gratuitous vulgarity. But I think if you mention the phrase “don’t a give a rat’s ass” —in the spirit of linguistic inquiry—no one will mind.
By the way, I see one of our gatekeepers has changed your title to “Eggcornista.” Congratulations! Your prolific and engaged posts have certainly earned it.
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I’ve never heard “I don’t give a rap†but I frequently hear “I don’t give a crapâ€. This is a slightly less vulgar version of “I don’t give a shit.â€
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I don’t think that reaching a consensus is the problem. It’s really that there are only a few people who write up the Database entries. About a year ago, anyone who could make sense of the procedure could write up an entry—a la Wikipedia, etc. But the quality of the entries was definitely suffering. You’ve really got to look at lots of these things before you have a good sense of what’s what. (Two of our three gatekeepers are professional linguists, which helps.) And there’s always an element of opinion involved. Right now, there are just three people who write up entries, and it’s not a real fast process.
I don’t worry about it too much. I’ve only ever had two contributions get enshrined in the Database, but I no longer really think of getting into the Database as the point of submitting. And as more people join, we’re developing more give and take right here on the Contribute pages—which is great. I like being made to think about “being that,” etc.
Maybe the Eggcornista thing is now automatic at 50, but it didn’t used to be. Don’t know.
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