Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Hi –
It’s been forever since I last checked in to the Eggcorn Database, but you’re all still close to my heart. (...or do I mean closed to my ark?)
Over on techcrunch there’s an article containing the following snippet: “So why has Adobe failed to take advantage of the power of the modern GPU? The answer is backwards computability. Adobe is burdened down by history.” Read the full article
It’s clear that the author intended to say “backwards compatability”. A search on Google returns “about 5,390 results” for the exact string “backwards computability”; “backwards compatibility” returns “about 2,210,000 results”.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this coinage.
regards
Ben
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It’s a live one: makes quite good sense, in the context of computer programming, which is where you usually hear it.
.
It does remind me of an old (and politically incorrect: blame it on my dad!) joke that involves restructuring of a related word in an eggcornish way:
.
“A little incompatibility is actually a good thing in a marriage. Especially if he has the income and she has the pattability.â€
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Primo.
Computer babble has prompted a number of discussions on this forum. Reboost, photochop, streamlining (for streaming online), labtop, gift (for GIF). “Backwards computability” is one of the best.
A common confusion of computing jargon we haven’t mentioned is “screensafer” (for “screeensaver”). See http://www.google.ca/search?q=%22screensafer%22
Last edited by kem (2011-11-11 11:22:45)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Thanks very much for the quick responses! Glad to hear this one makes the grade. I’ve made a few other submissions to the eggcorn database over the years via the forum; what’s the procedure for getting these submissions into the database? One of my favourites, “tailored off”, hasn’t made it in, but there was no indication on the thread that it wasn’t an eggcorn.
regards
Ben
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The database is undergoing rigor moribundis (pardon my Latin); few entries have been admitted to its hollowed ranks in the last long while. Anybody who checks it and ignores the forum will miss many (most, I don’t doubt) of the very best ones. Unfortunate, but that’s the way it is. I wish there was a way to put the two on a more obviously and overtly equal footing.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Oh, right – sounds like it needs a total overhaul. Sorry to hear that. What’s involved? Maybe that’s a conversation for another thread.
regards
Ben
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