Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
These 4 words all mean the same thing and presumably descended with modification from a common ancestor. Which came first?
The online dictionaries are vague, but at least one ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rumbustious) suggests that ‘robustious’ was the original and that ‘rumbustious’ is a corruption of it. And if you see ‘rumble’ or ‘rum’ (meaning weird or strange) within ‘rumbustious,’ it’s a plausible eggcorn gone mainstream.
The same dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rambunctious) describes ‘rambunctious’ as a specifically American variation on ‘rumbunctious.’ Again, if you see ‘ram’ in ‘rambunctious,’ it may be another old eggcorn.
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Great self-referential word history. Thinking about it, there may be a vast field of variants of rambunctious. Here is an interesting one. They are rambunches; he is rambunch. Might be mostly misspellings, though.
The grandkids blog
Yes, they are loud, rambunches and sometimes wild little things
Dating site
I have a 3 year son who is a rambunch child.
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Seems like the spellings “rambuckous/rambucktous/rambucktious/rambuckious” have that eggcorn smell. Can’t get much more rambunctious than a bucking bronco. A few dozen exemplars on the web.
Comment on a Flickr photo: “Riley is a bit rambuckous...what was in that yogurt cup? â€
Web forum post: “Sorry if I posted threads out of place. I guess I was just getting to rambuckous !â€
Mom forum comment: “He is rambuckous and outgoingâ€
Book roleplay: “Full of loud, rambucktous spirit and emotion in everything.â€
Harry Potter blog: “Lily was in Hermone’s arms, the most rambucktous Potter to date at the age of 2. â€
Web tabloid reader comment: “I have to shoo away when he becomes to rambucktious to customers.â€
Fiction of some kind: “The class is rambuckious, as I lay down my head. Watching the clock.â€
Last edited by kem (2013-03-07 09:27:49)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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