Eggcorn Forum

Discussions about eggcorns and related topics

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to if you wish to register.

The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.

Thanks for your understanding.

Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2010-12-06 21:43:02

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

"Smoke and daggers" and "Cloak and mirrors"

Mixen match. Someone in Ireland’s politics famously enriched the language with “smoke and daggers”, among other classics. And there’s a rock band in NZ called the Smokin’ Daggers. Beyond those influences, either of these blends might occasionally be intentional too.

No smoke and daggers, and no must-do session pulled from the pages of Runner’s World.
(http://www.athenryac.com/praise-training)

Besides the racket of economic exploitation, there are the smoke-and-daggers shenanigans of the military.
(http://www.birdsireland.com/pages/site_ … eep01.html)

Complete with magic mirrors and smoke-and-dagger tricks, the English can’t brag about their courts, either.
(http://www.shmoop.com/tale-of-two-citie … theme.html)

I love these points, they are perfect ways to connect yourself and your business to the community you serve. Leave all the cloak and mirrors behind and embrace the branding of you.
(http://www.influxinsights.com/blog/article/904/read.do)

I did not want to work for a dealer who viewed trades as a way to use “cloak and mirrors” to decieve one of my customers.
(http://christiancarguy.net/)

What is so important that our own government will shade the subject with cloak and mirrors?
Alien conspiracy

Last edited by burred (2010-12-06 21:43:24)

Offline

 

#2 2010-12-17 13:30:57

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: "Smoke and daggers" and "Cloak and mirrors"

Most of us probably don’t think of daggers as having a prominent place in the high-tech world of contemporary espionage, so “cloak and danger” may make more sense to some readers today. Though you still have to wonder about all those cloaks:

It is cloak-and-danger work, which means the 35-year old woman only wants to be known by her first name, Louise.
http://fahrusha.wordpress.com/2008/05/

It is riveting writing with the cloak-and-danger stuff that would make Ian Fleming jealous.
http ://www.amazon.com/All-Presidents-Men-Classic-Editions/dp/0684863553

Known as Oswald’s Mexico Mystery Tour, this phase of Kennedy assassination research is filled with cloak and danger deeds, odd happenings and coincidences, Oswald impersonators, missing tapes, straight out lying by top CIA officials, and Oswald’s own peculiar behavior.
http://oswaldsmother.blogspot.com/2009/ … exico.html

There’s also “coat and dagger,” which I find less interesting, but I include it as part of our project to document every reshaping in use in English:

Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950), best known for his coat and dagger novels, Scaramouche, Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, was the son of an Italian father and an English mother, both opera singers.
http://www.italian-language-study.com/i … riters.htm

But it is not only the usual coat-and-dagger-story.
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&expIds=172 … fc6f926f13

Offline

 

Board footer

Powered by PunBB
PunBB is © 2002–2005 Rickard Andersson
Individual posters retain the copyright to their posts.

RSS feeds: active topicsall new posts