Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I put this one down here in “Slips, etc.” because I’m not sure that the users are really thinking meaningfully about the imagery employed. But they might be. Perhaps “hitchmen” get you out of hitches. Or hitch you up with opportunities. It’s probably more likely that “hitmen” is running a bit of interference here. In any case, this one’s hard to count but fairly rare. Examples:
Remember though, Stalin only kept power because he and his hitchmen had the guns.
http://stupid-boy.net/lofiversion/index.php/t16974.html
It seems that the guv and his hitchmen were outsmarted by Mr. Draper and his two clients.
http://www.sj-r.com/news/statehouse/200 … ring_case/
USbank has become hitler’s hitchmen. What organizations
monitor this bank. I would say the way they handle their overdrafts is criminal.
http://www.usbank-5starscrewed.0catch.c … it_Nx.html
how long do i get to pay back that tenner before you send your hitchmen after me?
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu … id=1992867
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Even though “hitchmen” at first seems to be a blend of “hitmen” and “henchmen,” it might actually be an eggcorn if we can tease out the meaning of “hitch” here. “Hitch” has a few dictionary meanings, but the broadest interpretation might be that of a connection. In the current context, “hitchmen” might be those “hitched up with” or simply associated with the evildoer.
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Hench no longer has any meaning by itself. The only place it survives in English is in Henchman. Hence (hench???), people are likely to substitute living words such as Hitch. But Hitch seems pretty far-out. Does anybody say Hensman, meaning the guy is just a chicken?
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I had a hunch I would find this one: the twisted, secretive hunchmen.
Unfortunately it seems that AZ might get what he (and US) wants. He and his hunchmen must be laughing at the response he is getting from this foolish nation.
http://eyetentwo.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html
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I thought we might even move on to huntsman as a replacement for henchman, but alas all the examples I googled up seem legit.
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No huntsmen, but the Big Man is sometimes surrounded by his hedgemen.
Or his hengemen.
Last edited by burred (2011-02-20 01:42:14)
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Add to the list “hingemen,†those whose lives depend (hinge) in some way a boss. Many examples.
Western movie synopsis: “He wanted their land and sent his hingemen out to kill his own son and run the Indian family off the land he wanted.â€
Game board post: “The thing I hate about the traps, alot of my good men die. I even killed off two of my hingemen.â€
Cambodian discussion group: “he (Hor Namhong) was one of the Khmer-Rouge hingemen there is nothing we can do to him now.â€
“Hingemen,†by the way, is a dictionary word. English speakers refer to members of the college of cardinals as the “Pope’s hingemen.†The Latin root of “cardinal†may be cardo, the word for a hinge (cf. the cardinal points of a compass).
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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