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
‘Quip pro quo’ may have started as an entry to a contest in New York Magazine. Readers were invited to change one letter of a popular phrase in order to generate an alternate meaning. (Other entries: ‘Respondez s’il vous plaid,’ ’ aloha oy,’ etc.) However, it also occurs in the wild (as does ‘quit pro quo’ less often.). Examples:
However, as a quip-pro-quo to the unsatisfactory system, our legislature has a lot of opportunities to take pot shots at the officials-in-charge.
www.ericli.org/reports/hksa_mar04.html
It’s synergy, man. Whatever the quip pro quo is, only Scott Chambers and Tony Baker know for sure; nobody else was in the room.
something2eat.com/ features.cfm?columnist=1&RequestedArticleID=323
...but employees also nominated each other for monetary awards in blatant “quip pro quo†arrangements between themselves.
www.cpms.osd.mil/nspscomments/ol-10510554.htm
First realising that there is not a quip pro quo between you and those surveilling you, that they are not accountable to you, that they have no right …
www.insurgentdesire.org.uk/ surveillanceanddomestication.htm
...that I quarreled with in the various hearings and depositions that I’ve been a part of is that the implication that there was some quip pro quo involved…
www.icij.org/dtaweb/BOP2000_B_I_DF.asp?L1=20& L2=24&L3=35&L4=30&L5=40&State=
It was also reported a CBC official had contributed five hundred dollars to a Holt fundraiser for which allegations of a quip pro quo agreement was arranged …
www.thebcn.com/criterion/news/news. php?FILE=Details&CATEGORY=COMMUNITY&ID=867
More recent attempts have been made to ascertain if Iraq would settle refugees in the Mosul area as a quip pro quo for removal of sanctions. ...
www.occupationalhazard.org/article.php?IDD=560
Offline
A possibly more eggcornical perversion of “quid pro quo†is “quit pro quo.†Four examples below from the dozens of instances on the web. The image may be that a mutual acquitting. Or a reciprocal quitting – “I’ll stop if you stop.â€
Comment on a blog: “We do things fo others because we know there will be a quit pro quo. How many business marketers and salesmen consider building trusted relationships that don’t just terminate at the point of sale? â€
Audio forum: “ Quit pro quo for my first Phonoclone sale into the Japanese market, here’s a little taste of the domestic state of affairs. â€
Article in New Delhi newspaper: “The conglomerate has been embroiled in controversy as reports claimed that the subsidiary of the Malaysian company that benefited from Maran’s decision to award 2G licence made investments in the Sun network in a quit pro quo deal.â€
Article in business e-zine: “The quit pro quo of course is that they also build trust in you and their belief in your confidence in them.â€
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
Offline
Good one, I buy it. Quit pro quo, here are some other substitutands that are not nearly so coherent. I just looked for forms that were easier to pronounce than the original, or were predictable anticipations/perseverations.
Besides, I tend to think in terms of “Quid pro cro” (who does it benefit most?) when I come across theories like this.
http://forums.starcraft.org/threads/195 … hing/page4
in de island every thing is personalized. by that, i mean if yuh want uh job, yoh got to go to talk tuh sumbody, in many cases a politician who might want sumtin in return – too much quip pro cro.
http://www.islandmix.com/backchat/f6/br … ndex3.html
The plant is pollinated by the night-active hawkmoth, which after the quib pro quo exchange of pollination for nectar likes to lay its eggs on N. attenuata—eggs that develop into voracious, leaf-eating caterpillars.
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/ … ollinators
You know who you are & like I touch your hearts, you touch mine as well “Quick pro cro”. Thank you very much!
Snippet from http://lyrics.is/song-touch-me-lyrics-suicide.html
But there’s a quick pro-quote here. We’re ina war.
http://www.supernatural.tv/epguides/s3/sincity.htm
Offline