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#1 2013-12-31 21:05:29

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

"sleep ap" for "CPAP"

My friend Penny, age 60, was found dead in her bed the other day. Her sleep apnea is the suspected culprit, which reminds me to use my CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) machine every night! Pondering this, I realized that “CPAP” (typically pronounced like “see-pap”), sounds a lot like “sleep ap”(nea). Sure enough, googling “sleep ap machine” yielded 48 purportedly unique hits, such as:

you could set up a double ended cig-lighter to cig-lighter cord that would keep it charged from your car’s cig-lighter socket while driving, and then use that powerpack to run the sleep-ap machine at nights.
discussion

he needs more sleep and possible a visit a sleep study/ clinic to have get a sleep ap machine.
blog

Back to bed and sleep ap. machine with the oxygen.
discussion

One team member, a retiree, didn’t sleep properly due to a busted sleep ap machine, so slept all day.
blog

Few if any of the examples I perused showed any sign of being intended humorously, so I suspect this is a real eggcorn for at least some folks.

Of course, I also had to investigate the converse, “CPAPnea”! Googling that yielded quite a few hits, but none of the 60 I examined were eggcornish. Most were references to a business called CPAPnea Medical Supply. Googling the spelling variant “CPAPnia” was also fruitless. But I’m quite happy with “sleep ap machine”, which seems plenty eggcornish to me.

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#2 2013-12-31 21:47:02

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "sleep ap" for "CPAP"

Well done, Dixon. My daughter in Halifax had premature twins and we’ve been up to our necks in technical terminology. How many times have I heard the word “CPAP” in the last two months?

You will find many more examples if you search for “sleep app machine.” The eggcorn image mapping is to “application,” I think, not “apnea.”

Last edited by kem (2013-12-31 22:06:45)


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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