Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
This is closer to the mondegreen end of the spectrum, though they both represent quite positive states: being not only free of fetters, but smelling good.
Mr. Funk leaves us at the end of the book with a feeling of renewed assurance in his belief that the saner methods of healthy recreation, happy, unfetid social life, and the efforts of women expressed in their vote is the hope of today.
American Journal of Nursing, July 1922
I am weak with unfetid guilt
UK poet
The following are not by human hand, but they are pretty amusing.
The sweethearts were fetid at a dinner held at the Sea Isle.
silicism paper archive
Other silicisms I ran across:
following the mass, a reception and barbecue were fetid at the couple’s home.
The punch and coffee sex vices were fetid at opposite ends
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The punch and coffee sex vices were fetid at opposite ends
Definitely snort-worthy! Punch at one end, sex at the other, both in their most vicious form.
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The following are both from the late 1800’s and probably represent somebody trying to reproduce non-standard speech, but they may point to a possible eggcorn, hatched from the aromatic goop that grows within unchanged socks:
What impels the insect to go through into tae inside I do not positively know: perhaps it is a norribly feeted odor which issues from withia
a feeted smell, he said it must been the fault of your oil factories.” Once more the gardener turns the soil.
(Oil factories could be another, I suppose, though most who know enough to use it would only say it as a joke.)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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A norribly feeted odor would be compounded if one were a six-footed tall man. Here’s another fragant mondegreen, or cupertino, or a cupertino of an eggcorn, since I’m guessing that they were reaching for feted to go with the feast:
Set against the backdrop of ancient Greece, a group of young men steal the fetid calf meant as a tribute to the gods and enjoy a private feast fit for a king.
film review
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...perhaps it is a norribly feeted odor which issues from withia
I’m guessing that “a norribly” is from a mis-hearing of the British “an ‘orribly”. Borrowing/losing of initial and final letters of adjacent words is fairly common.
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There are two separate threads here: unfetid vs unfettered and fetid versus fêted (sp? I’m deriving from fête)
The first seems eggcornish – something unfettered or unfetid would both be preferable to their antonyms.
The second I suspect is a failure of spellchecking software to recognise the foreign derivation of the word.
@David – the “fetid” calf is surely a corruption of fatted calf – one that has been fattened for eating. I doubt that fête / feast is the reason here.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will buy a ridiculous hat – Scott Adams (author of Dilbert)
Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day; set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life – Terry Pratchett
http://blog.meteorit.co.uk
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@Adam – I tried to follow the crossing paths of feted, fatted and golden calves here. And be sure to see DT’s even twisteder versions.
Last edited by David Bird (2014-12-17 06:31:53)
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