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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2011-03-16 14:18:01

GrantBarrett
Member
From: New York City
Registered: 2007-09-17
Posts: 9
Website

"lop-sized" for "lop-sided"

A sister ‘corn to “lopsighted” for “lopsided”
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=3620

“lop-sized” for “lop-sided”
https://encrypted.google.com/search?num … =&aql=&oq=

“A recent Nation carried a rather lop sized essay on AIDS in India.”
http://www.proxsa.org/resources/foil/foilpg.html

“Her belly is super lop-sized most of the time.”
http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/ho … 64518.html

This mix of the two forms makes me think that there may be some divergent lexicalization happening:

“You can hide a lop-sided butt, but not lop-sized balls.”
http://www.divxtitles.com/subtitles/534 … le_Bride/2

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#2 2011-03-16 14:43:08

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "lop-sized" for "lop-sided"

I like.

This one sent me to the dictionary. I realized that I had no idea what “lop” in “lop-sided” meant. Turns out it’s an eighteenth century nautical term. It used to be spelled “lap-sided” and it referred to a ship that listed to one side so that it looked like a lapping wave.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#3 2011-03-16 23:04:21

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: "lop-sized" for "lop-sided"

Funny and peculiar. Some of the hits seem to be a blend with lap-sized, as in lap-sized, lop-eared bunnies.

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#4 2011-03-17 18:48:47

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "lop-sized" for "lop-sided"

I went looking for the etymology because of bunnies. I have the feeling that many people think “lop-sided” has something to do with lop-eared rabbits. Lop-eared rabbits often have, and are pictured as having, their ears out of sync, leaning to one side.


.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#5 2011-03-20 15:26:10

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "lop-sized" for "lop-sided"

While musing on the origin of “lop-sided,” I came across a synonym, “galley-west,” that has eggcornish overtones in its history. I’ve never used the term “galley-west” myself, and I can’t remember ever seeing or hearing it used. Some people must know it, though – “galley-west” was featured on a recent Merriam-Webster word of the day.

The folks at M-W say that “galley-west” is almost always employed in the phrase “to knock galley-west” and that it means to force something to be awry, cockeyed, lop-sided. They write: “American author Mark Twain is on record as one of the first to use ‘galley-west’ in his writing. Etymologists believe the word is a corruption of dialectal English ‘colleywest’ or ‘collyweston.’”

Collyweston is a village in Northamptonshnire. A philological journal from 1855, the OED notes, says that “[w]hen a Lancashire man is altogether unsuccessful in his schemes, he says that everything goes colley-west with him.” “Coll(e)y-west” has been used with this “awry” meaning since the 16th century. I don’t know what the people in the village of Collyweston do that turns them into iconic examples of askewedness. Perhaps someone from there can enlighten us.

I wonder if the “galley-west” corruption of “colley-west” might be influenced by “galley,” the kitchen on a ship. Perhaps the speakers are thinking about a ship being knocked cockeyed by a wave so that its galley was disarranged. Or perhaps the wave rotated the ship in the wrong direction (west?).


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#6 2011-03-20 15:56:26

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

Re: "lop-sized" for "lop-sided"

The philological journal entry is available here on page 229. Your Beadwof has been domesticating Celtic now.

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#7 2011-03-20 22:13:40

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

Re: "lop-sized" for "lop-sided"

That Collyweston is apparently a confusion with Colyn’s Weston, to distinguish it from all the other Westons littering the countryside.

Note the play on words from Mr Harrison, from 1587, first describing his countrie men’s getups as collie weston ward, and then that they were as comely as a dog in a doublet.

Last edited by burred (2011-03-20 22:21:15)

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#8 2011-03-20 23:15:37

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "lop-sized" for "lop-sided"

Chances are it was some obscure story or joke about a man from Collyweston that triggered the saying. Joke was forgotten, phrase was not.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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