Eggcorn Forum

My take on the best of 2014, in eleven brief steps:

(1) Two good ones from this year’s crop might fit in the “religious eggcorns” category. “Wayfearing:”

wayfearing << wayfaring

has close connections to a southern U.S. spiritual. Replacing “areola,” the ring around a nipple, with “aureola,” the term for a halo:

aureola << areola

also has religioius implications. The Vatican, I hear, is not pleased.

(2) Double-yolkers always provoke alot of interest. This year there were three good ones. We had “scalefold:”

scalefold << scaffold

The second half of “scalefold” is a hidden eggcorn. By the same reasoning, the second half of “shuttlebutt:”

shuttlebutt << scuttlebutt

may also be a hidden eggcorn, with “butt=derriere” replacing “butt=keg.” “Petdegree” for “pedigree:”

pedegree/petdegree << pedigree

also gives us a pair of eggcorns for the price of one word.

(3) Some acorns draw eggcorns to themselves like dung attracts flies. This year we found, I believe, the best eggcorns for two of the most maggoty ones, “disheveled” and “cordoned off:”

disshuffled << disheveled
cornered off << cordoned off

(4) Some eggcorns take a run at their acorns, bidding to replace them. In a post this summer I outlined a method for putting some real numbers to the strength of these up-and-comer eggcorns. I applied it in that post to our 2013 favorites. I did the same this year, and I found that three of the eggcorns in my 2014 best-of-the-year selections were trying hard to replace their acorns. One was “cornered off” for “cordoned off,” mentioned just above. In GlowBe, the eggcorn “cornered off” is about 1% as common as the acorn “cordoned off.” Google Ngram rates it at 0.5%. “Agawk,” says Ngram, turns up in published works once for every 500 instances of “agog:”

agawk << agog

Finally, “arranged in court,”

arranged in court << arraigned in court

though not verifiable in any of the Big Words databases, appears to have slipped by quite a large number of editors. A Google Book search for “arranged in court” turns up several dozen examples.

(5) Four of the eggcorns on my end-of-year list are so good, so full of potent image, that a fair vote by a panel of unbribed lexicographers might very well opt for dictionary inclusion of the eggcorn in place of the acorn:

prompto << pronto
tiedwad << tightwad
decanner << decanter
collectic << eclectic

(6) Eggporn was not much on display in 2014 and most of what we looked at didn’t seem to tickle my fantasy. One did, though:

scandally clad << scantily clad

(7) Three of our best 2014 eggcorns were related in some way to sound:

echolades << accolades
glibberish/glibbering << gibberish/gibbering
vombed/vombited << vomited

(8) Another pair of good eggcorns seemed to be sensitive to temperature:

chillted/chilted << jilted
boilsterous << boisterous

(9) This year we kept our ooglers on the wigglers:

eyebulb << eyeball
tadpool << tadpole

(10) An eggcorn that I wish I had had in my pocket during visits to used car lot:

oversellous << overzealous

(11) For the SNOT (Seen but Not Observed Term) Award for the lowest hanging gunk, I nominate the “pair” in “pairents” and “pairallel:”

pairents << parents
pairallel << parallel

What can I say? For a decade dozens of us missed the 800 pound elephant in the room. As coach says, No excuses accepted.