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#1 2011-05-21 04:59:29

JuanTwoThree
Eggcornista
From: Spain
Registered: 2009-08-15
Posts: 455

Faux Paux

This for “faux pas” has an amazing number of hits. “Paux” isn’t a French word, as far as I know. Which isn’t very far.

PS It’s probably got mangled with “je ne peux pas”

Last edited by JuanTwoThree (2011-05-21 05:02:36)


On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.

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#2 2011-05-21 08:47:08

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

Re: Faux Paux

Will wonders never cease. Possible scenario: Faux pas => Fox pas => Fox pox => Faux paux. That suggests that Faux paux stems from someone returning “fox pox” to its imagined roots.

BTW, your post leads directly to another poteaux rose/eggcorn for the archives, in the form of “a faut pas”. A faux pas is a false step; a faut pas is a “must not”.

The erudite polymath, Freeman Dyson, who is a mathematical physicist, and who I admire as a scholar and have learnt much about science from his writings, made such a faut pas in his essay
Archives of Iranian Medicine

Sorry to include the following, for completeness:

Les fauts pas ne sont pas à commettre en sa compagnie
Online fic

Des fauts pas, de la maladresse, des paroles incomprises !
Blogue

See also faux » foe and faux pas » faux pax which seems directly pertinent:

I may be wrong but faux pax is probably the plural of faux pas
...
Perhaps the other way around – Faux pax is singular, faux pas is plural. My French is not that great.

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#3 2011-05-21 14:11:28

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Re: Faux Paux

Foo pah is my favorite variant. They all are self-iconic, which is always enjoyable.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#4 2011-05-22 11:21:03

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

Re: Faux Paux

I agree, an outstanding example of self-referential airudition.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#5 2011-06-21 13:48:03

yanogator
Eggcornista
From: Ohio
Registered: 2007-06-07
Posts: 237

Re: Faux Paux

As I’ve said a few times before, I think it’s just bad spelling intensified by a foreign language.

Bruce


“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin

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