Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
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I’m sure those of you who watch Dexter know what I’m talking about. For the longest time I thought it was “blood splatter” and looking at Google results, I’m not alone.
Don’t know how well known it is, but it IS a real branch of forensics. I don’t know if it’s well-known enough to be ‘eggcorn’ material, but its notoriety definitely increased ever since Dexter became a hit TV show.
http://forensics4fiction.com/2011/06/05 … -analysis/
Last edited by zak (2012-11-01 07:36:39)
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Low hanging fruit that has not been noted on this forum before.
“Splatter” seems to be edging in on “spatter” territory across the board. See the rise in frequency of “splatter of rain” and the fall in frequency of “spatter of rain” in published sources.
“Sputter of rain” also comes into the general confusion. Perhaps also ” spitter of rain. ”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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It’s not clear to me that this is an eggcorn. Is there any difference in meaning between spatter and splatter? Etymonline suggests that splatter might have originated as a blend of splash and spatter.
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“Spatter” and “splatter” are not quite the same, to me at least. “Spatter” emphasizes the scattering of something either of a drop-like nature or a drop-like size. “Splatter” seems to focus on the impact itself, not just on the result, with implications of a subdued, liquidy sound. When you open the wrong end of a bag of frozen peas, they spatter across the floor, but they don’t really splatter.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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