Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
The Eggcorn Database discusses “SLIGHT of hand” as an almost mainstream alternative to “Sleight of hand”—indicating that the former is not an eggcorn. However, there is no mention of “SLIDE of hand”
A ” Sleight of hand” is a skillful manner of deceiving people, often requiring dexterity. A “slide of hand” to execute a magic trick would seem to be an eggcorn.
Examples:
SU: allmagic.comThe old slide of hand…lot of magic info. ... Cool Magic tricks. Fun to practice and try on your friends. Especially when you slap their faces afterwards. ...
www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.allmagic.com/ – 23k – Cached – Similar pages
Velvet Rope – Cairns Nightclub, Entertainment VenueInternational and award winning illusionist Tony Laffan and his assistant will leave you astounded with each slide of hand trick, close up magic and …
www.canz.com.au/velvet_rope.html – 19k – Cached – Similar pages
Criss Angel: Mind Freak – Unexplained Mysteries Discussion ForumsTV magic includes: actors, camera tricks, special effects, slide of hand and misdirection. Combine all of these things and anyone can do what Angel does. ...
www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/ind … 366&st=435 – 132k – Cached – Similar pages
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Another possible eggcorn is “SLY of hand”
Examples:
Yahoo! Answers – Do you believe in magic?I believe in the sly of hand, visual trickery of the mind magic but not literal form changing, killing, some times dark magic of fairy tales. ...
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070105161704AAJLEpS – 180k – Cached – Similar pages
[PDF] Building Healthy Families: Strength. Support. Solutions.File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
indirect,seemingly subtle,sly of hand,behind the back,. manipulative tactics of abuse. ... While there is no magic formula that will work …
www.clarian.org/pdf/communityplunge_resource.pdf – Similar pages
Black Sunday (Bava) – DVD Movie Centralwas accomplished, but the first time around, viewers are likely to be quite surprised at this sly-of-hand. In fact, Bava uses numerous such tricks …
www.dvdmoviecentral.com/ReviewsText/bla … y_bava.htm – 32k – Cached – Similar pages
Falun Dafa Clearwisdom.netHe effortlessly, with a sly of hand, substituted the case of fire in an Internet cafe with “The case of Fire in Congress” in today’s China. ...
www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/7/15/24141.html – 18k – Supplemental Result – Cached – Similar pages
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I’ve heard the word pronounced as ‘slate’, which makes some sense considering the word ‘sleigh’, and sure enough there are 124 googlehits for ‘slate of hand’. Whether this expression could be eggcornish seems doubtful; ‘slide’ and ‘sly’ both suggest the speed and deceit required in prestidigitation, but apart from slate’s traditional use as a writing surface which can instantly be wiped clean there isn’t much to recommend it as an eggcorn in this context.
Out of these Christian philosophies and this philosophic slate of hand came our foundation for human rights and we all have benefited…it was the birth of …
www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060916_s … arks/P300/ – 363k – Cached –
How much of the Chinese surplus is just accounting slate of hand? Multinationals could pretty much assign whatever they want on related trades? ...
www.rgemonitor.com/blog/setser/108837 – 140k – Cached
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Sorry to say it, Jorkel, but you’ve been lakritzed—a common fate around here. Ken Lakritz posted the “slide of hand” possibility way back in July 2005. Below I’ve given each paragraph of Ken’s post a bq to keep from discombobulating people with the word “smoosh.”
Yours was nevertheless a fruitful post. I’ve never seen “sly of hand” before, and I think it’s great. I especially like your second example for “sly of hand.” One of the problems with the phrase “sleight of hand” is that there’s no adjective to describe someone with that skill; to say that someone is “sly of hand” fixes that. I think I’m going to start using it.
Peter’s “slate of hand” is also weird and interesting, though I think he’s right in suspecting that it’s probably a malapropism or misspelling. I wonder whether there are British dialects in which “sleight” and “slate” are pronounced similarly.
Here’s Ken’s post:
#501 Commentary by Ken Lakritz , 2005/07/24 at 10:28 pm
’slide of hand’ for ’sleight of hand.’ The database already contains ’slight of hand.’ This one is less common (900 ghits vs 80k) but it seems like a nicer semantic reinterpretation. Examples:
He’s performing snappy slide-of-hand tricks for a little boy, making his key disappear, reappear as some coins, show up in again in the kid’s pocket…
www.greencine.com/webCata…
… the spectacle became transparent slide of hand, then megaspectacle, and the off-the-balance-sheet pyramid was no longer believable. …
www.findarticles.com/p/ar… miqa4007/is200501/ai_n13633951
At the end, I felt the studio tried to force a happy ending in a tricky slide of hand approach.
www.epinions.com/content_…
Amazingly, the water seemingly stayed in the cup. Does this have anything to do with physics or is it just a slide of hand?
www.physicstutor.com/cgi-…
No more stone or clay tablets, no more paper, no more movable type; just speed-of-light movable bits and bytes flowing around the globe like slide of hand.
www.dymaxionweb.com/dymax… archives/cat_dymaxia.html
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jorkel wrote:
The Eggcorn Database discusses “SLIGHT of hand” as an almost mainstream alternative to “Sleight of hand”—indicating that the former is not an eggcorn.
I encountered an example of this very common substitution the other day:
Follow the slight of hand that has allowed instead for the dumpers to be paid by US, the American people
As these toxic chemicals are being forced upon community after community across the US, in sham hearings.
(Sorry, I’ve lost track of the source for this quote.)
I’m not so sure it’s never an eggcorn. I can imagine that someone would make a meaning-connection (however unconsciously) between slight as in “insult” and sleight of hand, which may be considered insulting insofar as it fools people.
I know, it’s a long shot. Only a sleight possibility, I suppose.
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