Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
The Eggcorn Forum and the Eggcorn Database are currently in the process of being converted into static sites.
Once the conversion is complete, all existing posts are expected to still be accessible at their original URLs. However, no new posts will be possible.
Feel free to comment on the relevant forum threads.
Chris -- 2025-05-10
The “road” for “row” eggcorn is already on our eggcorn list; see here for a discussion of several variations: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/73/road/
Here’s a variation which, as far as I can see, has not been mentioned here yet: “It looks bad, you’ve a rough road to plow”. The use of “rough” instead of “tough” is somewhat unusual; more so is the substitution of “plow” for “hoe”, which may be attributable to the fact that this example is a line from a limerick and it had to rhyme with “now” and “vow”.
Googling yields 157 hits. Though many of them are redundant, most are the eggcorn.
BTW, this limerick is on a website I’ve just discovered that may be of interest to some of you: the OEDILF (Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form) site. They are creating a dictionary of the English language which defines or exemplifies every major meaning of common words and phrases with limericks! So far they have approved 63,419 limericks. They’re currently accepting submissions of limericks defining words from Aa to Dr, so check them out at http://www.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php?
Offline