Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
ambergris – 840,000 ghits
ambergrease – 1,760 ”
Ambergris is described as having a waxy (greasy?) feel to it, and whales have been rendered to produce various grades of oil for, amongst other things, lubrication, so there is some association with ‘grease’ I suppose, though I’m not convinced.
Ambergrease is got in the Indian Sea, along the Coasts of Africa, ... He said, that the difference between Ambergrease and the black Amber, ...
www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Chardin4.htm – 41k – Cached
... and Dates sliced and stones, of each a half pound, distil it again, and sweeten it with some Sugar-candy, and take of Ambergrease, Pearl, red Coral, ...
www.storyoflondon.com/print.php?sid=522 – 39k – Cached
... I examin’d my Warehouses, and found a Bag of Ambergrease, and these 12 Carolina Deer-skins missing. I desire Mrs. Tollman may be called. ...
www.oldbaileyonline.org/html_sessions/T17370420.html – 326k – Cached
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Ambergris’ cousin, verdigris, is also spelled as verdigrease, and that going back hundreds of years. The ‘gris’ in the first refers to “grey”, and in the second to “Greek”. Here’s an example from 1829 of a double conflation: http://books.google.ca/books?id=zIJIAAA … 2&f=false.
Incidentally, there was a period of eggcornical confusion between ambergris and amber in the 15th and 16th centuries, according to Wedgwood. The word amber comes from an Arabic word for ambergris. It was subsequently applied to the stone, either as a result of or as a cause of some confusion about their common origin in the depths of the sea.
Last edited by David Bird (2011-02-08 09:20:56)
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Verdigris. A word I have heard pronounced so many ways that I have lost all sense of wrectitude.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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I think what kem is trying to say is that all those pronunciations of verdigris have given him verdigo [sic].
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