Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I heard (or think I heard) someone on the radio use the word ‘aftermass’ where ‘aftermath’ was clearly meant. This can be viewed in an eggcornish light but aftermatch is far more common. The last example contains a bonus eggcorn!
... with the truth when he ducks & dives questions about all the pinko socialist practices adopted in the aftermass of the credit crunch. ...
The U.S. Army Medical Department in the Aftermatch of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 18 April 1906.
See the photos we were sent in the aftermatch of the July 2007 flooding in Gloucestershire.
Its name was changed to Durward Street in the aftermatch of the killing.
However, he was complicit in the scotch the earth policy in the aftermatch of the election on 30th August 1999, in Timor-Leste.
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I also have aftermass (as part of the phrase, in the aftermass of the storm ), recorded in writing in an official government document from the United States, but that document was so full of errors of all sorts, some probably spell-checker errors, that I can’t claim it as evidence that the form is standard. I also have heard it spoken.
*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 don’t see “scotch the earth” in a forum search. I can see it as a quick typo, or possibly as a misunderstanding of the ground being scratched, torn up, and totally destroyed instead of just burnt?
I think it might be an eggcorn, especially this last reference, which appears to believe that “scotched earth” is a term invented by the shah, with no historical referent. “scotch” or “scotched” is used 5 times in that article, with no occurrences of “scorch”.
Last edited by fpberger (2010-10-05 17:23:32)
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Despite t and r huddling together on the keyboard I think that some examples of ‘scotch’ for ‘scorch’ may well be eggcornish and fp’s last example can’t be a mere typo. Unlike, perhaps, the round-tripper –
The last time I was there the lady who attended to me was chewing noisily on what appeared to be a scorch egg. I was appalled.
Another aftermath variant:
Perspectives for Urban Earthquake Disaster Reduction – Three Years passed in The Aftermash of The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disasters
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