Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
This has been mentioned in passing on gull vs gall, but I noticed it in a Facebook comment today.
Here are some examples ghits:
What are the symptoms of a bad gull bladder?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index … 823AA52FQA
What is a gull bladder?
http://www.ask.com/question/what-is-a-gull-bladder
Q. Foods to avoid after gull bladder and appendix removal?
http://answers.webmd.com/answers/503089 … ix-removal
Offline
What meaning connection do you see? Otherwise it looks like a simple malapropism (if there is such a thing!) I mean, one less than common word substituted for another, without any discernible reason other than the similarity of sound. Would the idea be that perhaps seagulls have a bladder of this sort? Or that it looks or smells like a gull? Or what?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline
Semantically, my intuition is ‘gull bladder’ is gull-shaped, or similar in function to the same organ in the gull. I could also imagine the smell version, but I don’t know what a gull smells like.
Offline
Those sound like the suggestions my brain throws up when I’m trying to account for an otherwise inexplicable malapropism, not something a perp would be likely to actually believe. Again, it would be very helpful to talk to somebody who uses the word and hear what at least one of them is thinking of.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline
I talked to my friend on Facebook — it was totally a spelling error in his case, he says.
Offline