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Chris -- 2018-04-11
This was in an online discussion I saw today:
Yes we do need a mortitorium on vineyards now…
Having never seen this one, I was inspired to google “mortitorium”, and found around 30 unique hits that are this eggcorn (and not the heavy metal band or a pun). For instance:
Mortitorium on legal immigration, border sealing, deportations of illegals would spur economy…
Anyone who THINKS a mortitorium on flounder will fix the problem has no idea as to what the issue is.
There should be a mortitorium on GE foods until long-term studies show they are safe for human health and the environment.
I would like to point out that there is no mortitorium on posting today.
What we need is a retroactive mortitorium on all of Obama’s executive orders and appointments.
in 1929 during the great depression the people took to the streets and demanded there be a foreclosure mortitorium, a foreclsoure mortitorium now would put countless people out of work.
The Governor had to call a mortitorium and issed warnings to price gaugers.
Surely this is an eggcorn. The meaning connection would seem to be a reference to a sort of death (even if temporary), though I also wouldn’t rule out possible reference to mortification in the sense of subduing by denial or even in the sense of humiliation.
I didn’t bother to google slight spelling variations on this, such as “mortatorium”, but they probably exist, too.
Last edited by Dixon Wragg (2013-10-23 00:12:53)
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“Mortitorium” is a hard eggcorn to prove. It assumes an implicit or explicit etymological aptitude on the part of the speaker—the ability to draw a line between “mort-” and death (though the Latin mors does have a prominent place in English: mortal, mortuary, immortal). In addition, the initial “t” could be a result of pulling forward the later “t.”
“Mortatorium” sounds like it should be the generic term for a place where bodies are kept. “The columbarium was on the west side of the mortatorium, near the old graves.”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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