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#1 2006-08-09 11:07:45

jgarfield
Member
Registered: 2006-08-09
Posts: 1

"phantom this" for "fathom this"

I have a beloved friend—a non-native English speaker—who says, “This is more than I can phantom.” It works for me—phantoms are elusive and lack substance. What could be harder to grasp than a phantom?

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#2 2006-08-16 12:04:00

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Re: "phantom this" for "fathom this"

Google counts: Aug 16, 2006
1050 “cannot PHANTOM”
570,000 “cannot fathom”

By one definition, a phantom is something of continual dread or abhorrence. I’d say this constitutes a genuine eggcorn.

Examples:

Real Articles – Free Content and ArticlesToday most people cannot phantom such a primitive existence . Communication is the link that allows our world to function at its torrid pace . ...
real-articles.com/ezineready.php?id=378 – 26k – Supplemental Result – Cached – Similar pages

COTSE | Open Letter re: RIAA | John HolsteinI cannot phantom the thought of allowing someone else to by-pass existing laws, just for the sake of “checking for copied music”. ...
www.cotse.com/helpdesk/documents/editor … etter.html – 34k – Cached – Similar pages

For Parents of TeensYou may be shocked to learn your 15-year-old has been in a committed cyber relationship for 8 months and simply cannot phantom the attraction. ...
www.cyberangels.org/teens.html – 21k – Cached – Similar pages

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#3 2006-08-28 19:04:59

doc9x
Member
Registered: 2006-08-28
Posts: 1

Re: "phantom this" for "fathom this"

I have recently run across this eggcorn as well. Here is the text I found in the wild:

“Those few require a different approach yet for some reason I can’t phantom people declare the exception as the rule.” http://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.ph … 93&page=12

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