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#1 2010-08-16 09:43:00

gormsby
Member
Registered: 2010-08-16
Posts: 1

End-all and beat-all << End-all and be-all

I noticed “end-all and beat-all” on a blog post today regarding web page styling: http://html5reset.org/. Seems like an obvious eggcorn deriving from “end-all and be-all” (which, tangentially, I tend to think of first as “be-all and end-all.”) Some Google counts:

“End-all and be-all”: about 1,280,000
“Be-all and end-all”: about 44,800,000
“End-all and beat-all”: about 143,000
“Beat-all and end-all”: about 574,000

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#2 2010-08-16 12:40:28

fpberger
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-16
Posts: 130

Re: End-all and beat-all << End-all and be-all

Well don’t that beat all…

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#3 2010-09-27 07:44:35

mskyle
Member
Registered: 2010-09-27
Posts: 1

Re: End-all and beat-all << End-all and be-all

I heard another variation on this on NPR this morning in a story about a DEA program to collect old prescription drugs (audio here) – “end all TO beat all”

Other uses:

Trusting God is the end all to beat all

If you actually like rats, roaches, noise, gun shots, having your car broken into, staff that thinks she’s the end all to beat all

The braided hoses of course are not absolutley the end all to beat all, but you will eliminate the possibility of a burst hose.

SE ranking is not the end all to beat all when it comes to websites and sales.

The whole saying “end-all and be-all”/”be-all and end-all” isn’t exactly transparent, so I can see why people incline towards the “beat all” construction, though to me that makes the “end-all” part make even less sense!

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#4 2010-09-27 09:30:47

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: End-all and beat-all << End-all and be-all

I love these.

that makes the “end-all” part make even less sense!

To me that phrase is mixed up with the “[war] to end all [war]s” construction. Both phrases essentially come to mean “the ultimate”.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#5 2010-09-27 10:21:42

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

Re: End-all and beat-all << End-all and be-all

Excellent eggcorn find. “Beat-all” is a much better match for “end-all” when it comes to active and decisive imagery: beating and putting and end to all challenges. By contrast, the “be” of “be-all” seems a bit too passive … almost Zen-like.

Last edited by jorkel (2010-09-27 10:24:35)

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