Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
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I’m brand new here and uncertain about what to do with this one.
I searched and found a post about “commiserate with age/commensurate with age” (2006-09-25 13:51:35, from Peter Forster, Eggcornista). Should a post about “salary commiserate with experience” be a new topic, or a reply to the existing one?
After I first spotted one of these (contained in a job description someone thought was delightful for other reasons), I went hunting and found plenty. While “salary commiserate with experience” is the most common, there are variations:
“Salary commiserate to experience and diocesan scale.”
http://catholickey.org/index.php3?gif=a … le_id=4542
“Ability to solve problems independently; salary commiserates with experience”
http://www.napusfcu.org/home/about/careers
“Salary commiserates based on experience.”
http://workingtorontojobs.canada.com/te … =1&page=10
“Commiserates with” works better syntactically, and I think it might be the result of applying a spelling/grammar checker to the text.
I can’t imagine what people who use “commiserate” this way are thinking. It appears that they do not know what “commiserate” means and have only a global understanding of “commensurate with experience”, rather than understanding the words themselves. I am unsure whether this qualifies as an eggcorn, but since I found the post about “commiserate with age” here, I thought I’d be brave and post this.
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Welcome to the Eggcorn website suzie creamcheese. Everything you have said (and done) is right on the mark. (Posting a separate thread is just fine, and it’s very helpful that the title identifies the potential eggcorn).
I think you’ve pretty well answered the question of eggcornicity. The utterers don’t seem to know what the word “commensurate” means and substitute it with the word “commiserate” which doesn’t even offer new imagery that would make sense. This sounds like the makings of a malapropism.
“Salary commiserate with experience.” ...It’s an amusing image, though… If a person’s salary and experience could be personified, they’d be commiserating with each other over their inadequacy (or the lame applicant they’re tied to)!
Last edited by jorkel (2007-07-23 13:32:39)
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Here’s the example I recently encountered:
Compensation to be discussed during interview and will be commiserate with experience.
I agree that it’s not an eggcorn. Rather amusing, though, as my salary is certainly low enough that it might well elicit commiseration.
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