Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
A co-worker just said to me, “That’s quite a dilemma, and not one I’m going to wage in on.” I’ve found instances of it on the web:
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/S … iteid=mktw
Check back at guruscorner.com on Wednesday when firebrand Martin Weiss of the Safe Money Report will wage in on the rate cut and its effect on deflation.
[probably for “weigh in”]
http://www.thegamergene.com/tag/halo-3/
Religious leaders are often quick to wage in on the negative site for the video game debate but not so in this case.
[possibly for “wade in”]
http://library.thinkquest.org/26638/war/index.html
War was also no longer limited to the combatting sides, for foreigners could wage in on one side or another and change completely the dynamics of the conflict.
[likely directly affected by “waging war”]
http://community.eons.com/groups/topics … /1/2007/05
I’m going to take a risk here and wage in on a delicate topic that seems to pervade many of these postings
[could be weigh or wade]
http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~nlevina/GOS … -FTMBa.htm
We will wage in on the debate on the pros and cons of global sourcing (offshoring).
[probably for “weigh in”]
16,300 total ghits for “wage in on” but not all are examples of this usage—about 50%, by the look of the first couple of pages of results.
Last edited by sesquiotic (2007-10-25 09:40:11)
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Jan Freeman notes “wager the pros and cons.”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Kem, “wage in on” is clearly bizarre in a good way, and “wager the pros and cons” is a credible eggcorn. They’re not related, are they, other than through ovulating the same acorn? I’m not quite sure what “wage in on” is. A simple malaprop for weigh? No, that wouldn’t explain it. A back-formation from wager?1 That would be delightful*, but wager doesn’t fit the sense of “weigh in on”. A reference to payment or salary or earnings – maybe like putting your two bits in? A long shot, but vaguely egg-shaped. There is none of the verb sense of “wage” as in “carry on”, “prosecute with prejudice”.
Ultimately, I’d wager it contains elements of all of the above, and that’s why I like it.
1 Hold on, they’re out there:
It isn’t my usual style to wager in on sensationalized topics but…
Blog
* I’m not enthusiastic about all back-formations. One that just came and smacked me upside the head last week was “incenting”, for motivating. Yurg.
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