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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Christ-o-pher Columbus, that goldthirsty savage, originated the word cannibal:
“human that eats human flesh,” 1550s, from Spanish canibal, caribal “a savage, cannibal,” from Caniba, Christopher Columbus’ rendition of the Caribs’ name for themselves. The natives were believed to be anthropophagites. Columbus, seeking evidence that he was in Asia, thought the name meant the natives were subjects of the Great Khan. Shakespeare’s Caliban (in “The Tempest”) is from a version of this word, with n and l interchanged, found in Hakluyt’s “Voyages” (1599). The Spanish word had reached French by 1515. Used of animals from 1796. An Old English word for “cannibal” was selfæta.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cannibal
In an exam I’m marking, a student referred to canivores, perhaps by mistake. It did induce me to dig up this old collection of folks who think that selfeaters are carnibals.
Why is it that THERE ARE NO EFFORT BEING TAKEN to expose the claimed network of carnibals in germany and most probably the whole of Europe? Now suppose it was an African who do this? THAT OLD LIES OF Africans being carnibals would be the major headlines in today’s mainstream media.
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum … 199573/pg1
All Rain forest people are carnibals
Premise of syllogism
under Stalin’s rule in 1933, the Russians were reduced to such a state that they had to be carnibals.
History test response
Reputed to be carnibals, the Caribs fought fiercely against the European attempts to colonize the island
History blog
RITUAL CARNIBALISM: CHRISTANS ARE ANONYMOUS CARNIBALS AND YET THE DONT EVEN REALISE IT.
Ghana web
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Surely carnival is influencing this somehow.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Probably, but how? I wonder how many know that carne is at the heart of carnival. Those from latin countries would, I suppose. The b/v merger (?) would help, in Spain. It would be interesting, but a huge challenge, to try to find instances of the direct use of carnival for cannibal.
Or more simply, they know the word carnival, it sounds similar to cannibal, and the spelling they know for the one is applied to the other. That would make it a simple misspelling.
Last edited by burred (2014-01-13 11:54:26)
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Unless they pronounce it that way too, in which case it’s a malapropism. I agree that most don’t think of (the) flesh when they hear carnival .
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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DavidTuggy wrote:
Surely carnival is influencing this somehow.
I’m thinking more broadly that, since carne means meat or flesh, almost any carn- word could be influencing the eggcorn. Terms that are more explicitly about eating than is carnival, such as carnivore and chili con carne, might be more likely influences. Perhaps even the related charnel could underlie this eggcorn for some? And devoted gamahuchers like myself can’t help but make the connection between carnal and cannibal :^P
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