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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
The “of” version creeps into the Bangladeshi constitution:
http://www.pmo.gov.bd/pmolib/constitution/schedule3.htm
and law inforcement swearings-in:
http://www.lakesheriff.com/Organization/code.htm
It almost makes more sense. I dare say it has been misquoted for centuries.
Not remotely rib-tickling but a nice little reshaping, I suppose.
On the plain in Spain where it mainly rains.
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Nice find. GloWbE seems to indicate that about one percent of “without fear or favour” expressions are “without fear of favour.” Google Books provides evidence that the misconstrual has made it into print on a number of occasions.
Even more common than “without fear of favour” is “without fear and favour.” But the sense is not much modified by the change in conjunctions.
The Bangladeshi constitution document is strange—it contains a number of oaths, and only two of them have the mistake. Possibly these “of” replacements are typos.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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