Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
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
Seen on le-grove.co.uk May 25 2015 ‘Arsenal: Talkin’ bout my preeeparation[sic]’
“It wasn’t to be Ramsey’s day as the game fettered out, but there was still time for an(other) Ospina clanger.”
A google search for “the * fettered out” returns 5 pages of results including a number of others with different apparent meanings:
Urban sketchers Montreal has “When we set out our paraphernalia, it started raining big drops of rain, and slowly the sun fettered out to warm our cold backs.” which seems to have the opposite meaning.
Faith and the Muse in their song ‘Blessed’ have “We are the Underground And now we’ll watch their fortress crumble. The flaming pyres have fettered out, Relics of gavel and cross – no more!” (Darkwave Goth-Rock trigger warning but an excellent example of the genre)
Answers.com suggests that a poster is looking for the term ‘ferreted out’ when asked about the meaning of the term ‘fettered out’ although the OP there does not list the context in which the phrase was used that elicited their enquiry.
Although no ‘bowl in a china shop’, it’s still slightly amusing to me to picture a bunch of footballers trying to play in chains. Arsenal jokes to follow no doubt…
Offline
Welcome, Nat. “Fettered out” doesn’t make literal sense so I suspect it’s some kind of blend. Beyond petered out, might there be contributions from faded out and guttered out?
Offline
Ooooh… yes.. ‘faded out’ is much more plausible as a contributor. That one hadn’t occurred to me.
Offline
“Frittered away/out”? “petered out” (as David suggested)? “fizzled out”? “Flickered out”? Do the citations have in common something like “turn out (less than decisively) to be visible”? Or what? Interesting mess of possibilities.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2015-06-01 15:49:42)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline