Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
If I understand it right, the difference between an eggcorn and a mere malapropism lies in whether the speaker has misinterpreted the etymology in a way that makes logical sense… is that right?
Google comes up with about 200 hits for buoy knife, most of which seem to be genuine misinterpretations based on the “bu-ee” pronunciation of Bowie knife that’s common in the American South. To wit:
http://www.myspace.com/36192481
Ryan is better than going sailing with an Australian with a buoy knife.
Given the context, is it possible that this writer thought of a Bowie knife as “a knife to cut buoys with”? It’s certainly more than just a phonetic spelling, since buoy is not spelled phonetically at all…
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Charo – Sailors have a particular style of knife. It is nothing like a Bowie Knife. Sailors’ knives have sharp edges, but no points. I have read that ships’ captains used to snap off the points of their sailors’ knives, so that the knives would be less dangerous in shipboard knife-fights. Even if this story is not true, sailors still carry edge-only/no-point knives. And sailors’ knives often have fids attached, unlike any other style of knife.
So the idea that a sailor-style knife might be called a BUOY KNIFE is pretty cool.
(Later) (Edit) I just looked at Google. Google has 143 BUOY KNIFEs. All of them appear to be plain mistakes, except that one you already found, which involved a sailor. But, I did not do an extensive read. I expected that I would find a brand name for sailor knives, but no.
So… It is off to the trademark office once again. I will register BUOY KNIFE in your name, but if you start a knife company and make any money, I will expect to be invited to the company Christmas party, at least.
Last edited by Tom Neely (2006-09-10 18:33:00)
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