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Chris -- 2018-04-11
‘Crock of shit’ must have arisen as a counterbalance to the more rare and desirable ‘crock of gold’. ‘Crock’ itself, a clay pot, is no longer a common word and it may be that the sound suggests the informal diminutive of ‘crocodile’. The resulting ‘croc of shit’ is equally unpleasant but possesses quite different imagery. Most but perhaps not all the 287 ughits are mis- spellings and I have met someone who firmly believed the expression related to crocodile-sized excrement. 287 is 35% of the 815 ughits ‘crock of shit’ yields, whereas ‘croc of gold’ at 82 ughits is only 11% of the original’s 753 ughits.
(As an incidental observation, while there are many hundreds of words ending -ic, there seems only a handful ending -oc and these look like exotic imports even when some aren’t: eg bloc, havoc, manioc and roc.)
I can find no examples where eggcornish misinterpretation is plain, so I append a typical one chosen at random:
It was clear to me that the financial statements of the bank were the proverbial croc of shit. I made this known to all involved and suggested massive asset …
www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/10/1031608245090.html – 27k – Cached
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10k “that’s a croc” vs. 190k “that’s a crock”. Again, you have to sort out real cases of “that’s a crocodile”, advertent cases of “I know it’s a crock but I’m spelling it croc for fun”, inadvertent cases of “I didn’t know you spell it crock” or “I failed to hit the k key (at all/hard enough)”, to get the few eggcornish cases of “that’s a croc” meaning overall “that’s a lousy, non-functional idea/exemplar of its category” but somehow thinking a crocodile is mixed into it. Certainly some eggcorn potential, but I haven’t seen any clear cases.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-14 12:52:39)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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One more reason to deplore the influence of Crocs plastic shoes, which even the Vacationer-in-Chief appears to favor: http://shoeblogs.com/2007/06/12/impeach-him/
Crocs with socks, no less.
Not such a big jump to Croc of shit.
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Several dozen examples out there of “croch/crotch of shit” and “crack of shit.” Not many seem to be puns.
Last edited by kem (2008-08-14 14:10:57)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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40 unique hits for “crop of shit.”
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One step down from a crop.
Ireland forum, colorful granny She also says “ah that’s a crap of shit”. She must have heard the words “crock of shit” on tv and mistaken it ever since! “Hey nan, what do ya think of the lisbon treaty?” “Ah it’s a crap of shit!”
Online poker envy That’s a crap of shit been play Got so long and haven’t won uet
Greek blog, crude parody HoHo-Fucking-Ho, what a crap of shit, we all work for Santa-Fanh we had enough we quit
Movie review But lets not for get that New Years Eve is a crap of shit that gets stars to be in because they get thousands of dollars for for only shooting for a couple of days each.
Between 50 and 100 unique ghits for a crap of shit.
Scientists are crooks Anybody with common sense can do there on research, and see the man made global warming myth is a crook of shit designed to make a few rich, and keep other so called experts in a job.
More bravado Multiculturalism – crook of shit, doomed experiment.
Attack of the Marxist-Lennonists I wondered where you got such a hateful crook of shit…......then i Goggled it..
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