Eggcorn Forum

Discussions about eggcorns and related topics

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to if you wish to register.

The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.

Thanks for your understanding.

Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2014-12-12 15:40:58

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2752
Website

trail wind < tail wind

Must have had a trail wind! We got 46.4 MPG on the way to Austin.

Most years you will have a trail wind for the race. you also have about 3-4 miles on trails that can slow you a little.

A slight descent with a trail wind was exactly what was needed for some speedy riding.

Doubtless a blending of a “tail wind” with a “trailing N” (plenty of hits on “a trailing wind”), but it makes a reasonable eggcorn, I think. There is no lack of examples. (You also wonder if people also have in mind just where the trail will wind … driving along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.)

Related: trailspin

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2014-12-12 15:46:38)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

Offline

 

#2 2014-12-12 17:12:00

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2752
Website

Re: trail wind < tail wind

Occurs to me that the opposite of a trailing wind would be a leading wind. So both are blowing in the direction you are travelling, but the leading wind blows faster than you are travelling while the trailing wind does not?


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

Offline

 

#3 2014-12-14 14:31:52

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2872

Re: trail wind < tail wind

These eggcorners may have flipped the meaning. A tail wind blows in the direction of travel. A trailing wind, to my thinking, blows the other way.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

Offline

 

#4 2014-12-15 10:08:05

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2752
Website

Re: trail wind < tail wind

How so? Trailers of all sorts follow what they are trailing, don’t they?


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

Offline

 

#5 2014-12-16 23:34:31

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2872

Re: trail wind < tail wind

True. But trailers are behind, and something behind (and, unlike a trailer, not attached) would seem to withdraw from you if you continued in your current direction.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

Offline

 

#6 2014-12-17 09:07:50

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2752
Website

Re: trail wind < tail wind

It’s all relative, and all that. The further off from England, the nearer is to France.
.
I still can’t yet picture a trailing wind as blowing the other way.
.
(The Whiting’s next advice is probably as wise as it gets: don’t worry about figuring it all out, just enjoy the game: “Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance!”)

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2014-12-17 09:11:46)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

Offline

 

Board footer

Powered by PunBB
PunBB is © 2002–2005 Rickard Andersson
Individual posters retain the copyright to their posts.

RSS feeds: active topicsall new posts