Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Hi, I’m new. Two possible eggcorns here (I think):
“Marquis” for “marquee” (as in the marquee of a theater, or even as in something one wants to show off with pride—”a marquee list of celebrities” or something). When “marquis” is used instead, does that imply something royally impressive about either theater signage or the thing one is displaying proudly?
“Review” for “revue”—It seems to me that the proper term for the theatrical production, i.e., a variety show featuring numerous types of performers, is “revue,” yet today “review” is almost always substituted for it everywhere you look. Is this simply an ignorant spelling change, or is it a sort of sort of anglicization of the original French meaning of the word? Or is it meant to imply a show that a critic might review? Or a show that an audience member might want to see more than once (“review”)?
Last edited by Trudi (2006-09-13 21:23:54)
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Trudi, welcome! – These are nifty. One analytical thought: People may not know that marquee and revue are real words. They may believe that revue is an example of Spelling Lite, e.g. lite for light, and thru for through.
So, maybe they pick marquis and review because they are trying too hard to be correct. Or marquis seems more sophisticated because it is French. You might compare the US Army press officers who say, “cachet of weapons” when they mean cache.
P.S. I believe people in England usually pronounce marquis “MAR-kwis.” So, if this mistake happens in England, this would be a stronger eggcorn than in the USA, where we try for the French pronunciation.
Last edited by Tom Neely (2006-09-15 10:32:05)
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