Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are temporarily closed as we're receiving a steady stream of registration spam.
Anyone who wishes to register, please email me at chris dot waigl at gmail dot com with the desired username and a valid email address, and I will register you manually.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2011-03-08
“Within certain perimeters”: 512 google hits
I find this to be a compelling eggcorn because ‘perimeters’ suggests a boundary, which is the whole point of staying within certain parameters.
-DeeT
Offline
On the one hand you are right about the “boundary” sense, but on the other hand, both “parameter” and “perimeter” are difficult, Latinate (or Greek, as it were) words. So for some, the mix-up between the two is certainly just a malapropism. I’m not convinced that the sense of “perimeter” is well-understood by those who write “within certain perimeters”. Which is the reason this one hasn’t been added.
Offline
Actually you can make a case that the eggcorn goes the other way. The mathematical term “parameter” does not mean a limit or boundary, it just means a variable that can be given a range of different values to describe various situations. The colloquial use, as in “staying within the parameters”, could well have originated through confusion with “perimeter” which does mean (the length of) a boundary.
Offline