Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
When working on an academic paper, my co-author and I found three what we at the time called “metaphones.” Now I know they may be eggcorns. I was able to find the original sources for the first two but only a current web-source for the third.
“Cannons of science†in W.E. Snizek. In search of influence: The testing of the Ortega hypothesis. Scientometrics v. 12, no. 5-6, pp. 311-314.
“Ceiling wax†in F. Narin. To believe or not to believe. Scientometrics v. 12, no. 506, pp. 343-344.
“Belle weather†In “Worldwide Market For Nanotechnology Instruments And Tools To Cross $700 Million By 2008†http://www.bccresearch.com/editors/RGB-283.html
At the time, we also had a Chinese friend whose English was peppered with these. Among my favorites was “camel-flagged” for, as she explained it, “that clothing hunters wear.”
Thank you for collecting these!
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H.H. – Can we see your paper somewhere in saberspace?
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Unfortunately, there is no freely available version but if you can get to a Gale database via a library, you can probably get to it. The full citation is:
But it may not be anything you need anyway. We only talked to each other and our friends about the “metaphones.” And, actually, as I remember it, it was Carole who found them and I who thought my name for them, “metaphones,” was particularly clever. Of course, like our terminology in the article, “metaphones” didn’t catch on either. LOL
Heidi
Heidi
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Heidi: you gave us a few nice examples earlier. (One of them was “ceiling wax” vs. “sealing wax” which I had analyzed independently in this forum.) Would you have any more to share? I’ll be sure to cite you if I do any further analysis on them.
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I will keep an eye out for more now that you all have created a home for them. Do interesting sign spellings count? Now that I think about it, I was reminded of the sign I saw once in a small town in Pennsylvania for a “Nota Republic.”
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Oh, sorry not to do this in the same reply but there was that sign at the local Holiday Inn Express that, for the longest time, offered “High Speed Internet Excess” which really states the case … LOL
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Heidi:
Those items you mention are good. “Internet Excess” seems to be a misspelling (or an intentionally bad pun!) As you may know, eggcorns need to be unintentional alterations that convey new, intended imagery.
There is a posting somewhere in the forum that already discusses “Nota Republic”
Eggcorn Forum / Contribute! ...Nota Republic by Ascared. 0, 19, 2006-09-06 19:27:07 by Ascared …
Eggcorn Forum / Nota Republic
Has any one out the made a visit lately to the Nota Republic. A web site says the recently changed their name to the Republic of Nota to avoid confusion. ...
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … p?pid=1471
If you visit that thread, you might add your own comment—particularly if it appeared in your publication. (And, if you’re really feeling ambitious, you could click on “Contribute” and work your way through 30 pages of the forum to see what’s been covered already).
On a technical note, you can consolidate your own posts with a copy-and-paste procedure: highlight a post and “copy” it (right-click menu of your mouse), then go over to one of your other posts and click on “Edit” (at the bottom right of the post), then “paste” the copied info in (right-click mouse menu again). When done, submit it and return to the duplicate post and hit “Delete.” But, you can only delete a post that is not the first one in the thread. I hope I didn’t confuse you.
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