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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2013-02-16 11:57:12

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Haughtiest hautier

“You really do say the most extraordinary things sometimes.” He said with haughtier.

The story line mainly hinges on the long standing feud between the resident Queen Bee Mary Davenport, played with great haughtier by Lesley Bond, and a new Wings resident Lotta Bainbridge (Margaret McCarthy).

The woman peered down at Frighan with such haughtier that they momentarily lost sight of the fact that she was a naked slave.

No artist since Toulouse-Lautrec –– the dwarf who, for all his sophistication, was obliged to gaze up at the woman in the brothels of Paris from the perspective of a small boy –– has captured such haughtier as well as Benisatto has done here.

The haut/haught of hauteur and haughty come from a single origin in old French, yet there is something more than slightly eggcornish in perceiving haughty within hauteur . The nominalizing suffix – er is already quite prolific, designating the subject or object of a verb ( keeper ‘guardian’ vs. ‘something worth keeping’), and occurrence of a verb ( ouster ), among a number of other things. The meaning ‘quality of an adjective’ (more prototypically associated with the suffix – ness ) is almost to be expected for such a morpheme, and may well be perceived here.

I don’t remember whether we’ve had any other – eur / – ier switches (in either direction).

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2013-02-16 12:05:10)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#2 2013-02-16 17:04:55

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: Haughtiest hautier

My guess is that users of haughtier are doubly lost – they’re mistaking the spelling of another mispelling of hauteur: haughture.

Kneeland thought Percy “possessed of all the Haughture, Tyranny & Ignorance Imaginable”
American History, ca. 1800

She fell to the floor sobbing, stripped of all haughture and arrogance, finally acknowledging the truth.
fanfic

This form apparently goes way back.

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