Eggcorn Forum

At times “shed” and “shred” do duty for each other, with, I think, some ballast of meaning shifting between the holds.

“Shed” and “shred” are close semantic neighbors: both words come from independent terms that refer to cutting, dividing. The historical contraction/evolution of meanings, however, has made the two terms more distinct in the minds of modern speakers. The verb “shed” now refers to sloughing off, getting rid of, and, by extension, falling down on, bestowing on (clouds shed rain). “Shred” has shrunk to the point that almost all of its meanings, except the one that refers to slicing into small strips, are obsolete or rare.

Animals shed hair/fur. But some people think they shred their excess pelage. Perhaps those who make this error are thinking of split ends (the split ends of hair product marketers, not the offensive formation in American football).

Opinion polling site: “should i shave my beautiful dog to cut down on shredding hair or keep his hair long and beautiful”

Pet product web page: “Dogs and cats have various problems such as shredding hair, flea and tick problems, arthritis conditions in the pets that are old etc. ”

Health forum: “I’v[e] read that when you first start taking rogaine, your shred hair. It takes a few months to actually see hair growth.”

Vacuum cleaner review: “Bought this hoover as i have 2cats and a dog, who shred fur daily”

The switch also goes the other way: certain idiomatic uses of “shred” (e.g., “shred of evidence,” “shred of dignity”) can appear with the more common “shed” in place of “shred.” It is possible that those who make this mistake are thinking of the small hut sense of “shed” rather than the divestment sense.

“Shed of proof/evidence” examples:

Islam.org: “What is surprising to note is that despite his bold ascription of this view to Imaam al-Bukhari, he did not furnish one shed of proof or reference to the works of Imaam al-Bukhari to verify his claim. ”

Blog entry: “There is not one shed of evidence that supports the notion, that Life is Serious.”

“Shed of light” in place of “shred of light” is interesting. This may just a primed phrase, though, and not a substitution – the speaker may actually be thinking of a light source (the sun?) shedding its rays:

Gaming forum character writeup: “He made his way to the caverns as he sighed, into the west he went heading for some shed of light into his darkened soul. ”

Advice from expert: “In this issue of my reliability newsletter, I would like to provide some shed of light about what Root Cause Analysis is all about and why most industries fail in their Root Cause initiatives.”

The clearest eggcorns, I think, come with the replacement of “shred” in the idiom “shred of hope/dignity/honor/emotion.” Again, the user may be thinking of “shed” as a small house (See also the blending of the two “shed” meanings in our earlier discussion of “watershed.”).

User comment on sports forum: “To Ricky you are too selfish and too old, your reflexes are not what they used to be and you are kidding yourself if you think that are, walk away now while you still have some shed of dignity. ”

Blog entry: “So its not like there was any chance, but May 21st will pretty much dash those clinging to some shed of hope.”

Role play fiction: “Samantha looked around the room looking for some shed of hope, then she saw a man walking around, as if he was looking for someone”

News spoof site: “I wanna love Tiger but he didn’t show one shed of emotion while he read his speech that was obviously written for him.”

Last edited by kem (2013-05-19 08:41:22)