Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Google counts on Nov. 9, 2006
30,700 “Don’t burn your bridges”
9 “Don’t burn your britches”—eggcorn
Analysis by Joe Krozel
“Don’t burn your bridges …” is fairly well known idiom meaning don’t make a decision that cannot be changed. Perhaps there are some who don’t see the imagery in bridges and might think the phrase is actually “Don’t burn your britches” which would convey the meaning of not doing something you might regret later.
Although I have heard the eggcorn version from time to time, I can’t seem to locate any legitimate examples. What follows are mostly discussions of the altered idiom rather than actual usages. Perhaps I narrowed my search too much. Any suggestions?
User talk:Lavintzin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaI have a couple of variants on it: “Don’t burn your bridges before you get to them”, and “Don’t burn your britches behind you”. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Lavintzin – 22k – Cached – Similar pages
SUSAN HOLBROOK”Don’t burn your britches. I got a whiff that this had to do with friendship somehow, and that there was some connection with liar liar pants on fire.” ...
www.paulodacosta.com/susan.htm – 3k – Cached – Similar pages
V. Hammer-In – October 2002 Archivequotations: “Don’t burn your britches behind you” Anonymous. – R. whitehurst – Monday, 10/14/02 11:29:08 GMT. Viking stuff: Bruce (Atli) ...
www.anvilfire.com/FAQs/archives/v102002.htm – 93k – Cached – Similar pages
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I heard this eggcorn in the wild last week! I was going to post it myself if there was not already an entry.
The person who said this is a new co-worker that claims a degree in english from a local major university.
The error has me questioning the validity of her resume.
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Did your co-worker admit that this was standard for her, MacGil?
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fwiw, Lavintzin at Wikipedia (whom you quoted) is me (or I if you insist). I had taken it to be a (quite funny) error, not standard for the people I collected it from.
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Here are another bunch of warpings I’ve recorded (on britches and bridges):
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Don’t burn your britches till you get to them
Don’t burn your bridges before you get to them
We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it
We’ll jump that bridge when we come to it.
We’ll solve those bridges when we come to them.
We’ll cross that bridge when we fall off it.
We’ll cross that bridge when it hatches.
We’ll we’ll fight that bridge when we get there.
We’ll face that bridge when it comes.
Talk about cutting a bridge.
Don’t get your britches in an uproar!
Don’t get your britches in a snit!
*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 do love those lists.
The roundtripper, too big for your bridges, is already in the bag.
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