Eggcorn Forum

We have had inclimate < inclement, but I did not find this one:

Due to increment weather conditions we will remain closed today and will hopefully reopen Friday morning @9am.

whether to close school due to increment weather. Snow days are difficult because

If increment weather happens during our tour and the conditions become unsafe to bike we will take a break or ride in the van until the conditions change.

This work entails ensuring that homes are desirable in addition to giving protection from the elements and increment climate.

This can be particularly important at night or in increment climate conditions.

Not terribly surprisingly, a lot of examples come from Asian-related sites: several of the major Asian languages easily mix up l’s and r’s.

Many other cases are likely to be purely malapropistic. Most people probably think of inclement as just a synonym for “bad” (they do not connect it to clemency , for instance), and many of them spelling-pronounce it INclement rather than (as the dictionary suggests) inCLEment . The substitution of r for l is an easy one, and the fact that increment(s/al) is an established phonological routine makes it slip off the tongue easily. It is an unlikely fingerslip typo on a qwerty keyboard at least.

Some may have the meaning of increment in mind, however, thinking of gradually (incrementally) worsening weather, perhaps. It will be an eggcorn for such users.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2014-07-20 12:15:25)