Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
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
I have no published reference. My (I think very bright,) 12 year old niece was concerned that her grandmother “has osteoporousness!”
This seems almost as descriptive as “old timer’s disease” to my somewhat biased mind. Do you like it?
Offline
Hey, Pointless_Hack, welcome to the forum. I see that no one has replied to your message – it’s that time of year, when everyone holds his, her, and their breath for the best-of-the-year runoff, based on the list that Kem is generously compiling behind the scenes.
I think your preternaturally bright 12 year old niece has neatly recovered the meaning of osteoporosis but has not changed it. A key feature of an eggcorn is that it reimages a word or phrase, reinterprets it and casts it in a logical but altered form. So although it’s startlingly perceptive of her, she hasn’t coined a new eggcorn, I don’t think.
Offline
Roger that, and thank you. I’m still feeling out differences between Malapropism and Eggcorn. Wikipedia’s Malapropism entry throws yet another term into the mix, leaving me still a little muddled. Happy, though, that I have a better term for “strategery” and “refudiate!” My mother taught me to respect authority ;-)
Offline