Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
From a description of a documentary film in a recent movie theater schedule:
This film chronicles the three-year existence of this mysterious group that toed the line between religious cult, art piece and elaborate game…
Clearly they meant “straddled the line”. I can see how there may be an eggcornish meaning-connection, as, whether you’re toeing the line or straddling it, you’re still right there at the line, but of course there can be no sound-confusion between “toed” and “straddled”, so this may not qualify as an eggcorn. Or does it?
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Not an eggcorn. A meaning misunderstanding, perhaps (malapropism).
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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kem wrote:
Not an eggcorn. A meaning misunderstanding, perhaps (malapropism).
Okay. And that would be because “toed” doesn’t sound anything like “straddled”, right?
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Right.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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As Dixon documented in another post today, people have taken toe the line to mean “lay your toe across the line (typically as a challenge to authority)â€, and used it accordingly. I suspect this is not just a few people, and I am sure that it has been going on for years. This example would be an extension from that now-established meaning: you already have part of a foot on each side of the line, so if you just drop or downplay the notion of challenging authority, you have it.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Came across this thread while indexing the 2013 eggcorn candidates. “Toed the line” in the sense of “straddled the line,” while not a regular eggcorn, could be a hidden eggcorn. A reimaging that leaves no trace in the sound or spelling.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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