Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I didn’t find this one on a search of the eggcorns or the forums, so here goes: I think there may be just enough imagery associated with ideal to make it border on eggcorn. For example, when potential clients call to tell me about all their great ideals, I think they may be referencing conceptions which they definitely believe to be at least excellent, if not perfect – a higher standard than anything similar which is currently available, for example.
Anyone have any thoughts on this one?
Could just be a malapropism I suppose, but it seems to make just a little too much sense to classify it as merely a malapropism in my opinion….although the last example posted here might support that view, since bad used to modify ideal completely strips ideal of its true meaning…
Crafting with Camille Blog : Home & Garden Television
Hey I have an ideal how about a show TOP CRAFTER. You know a show that starts out with several crafters and by process of elimination discover your new host …blogs.hgtv.com/hgtv/crafts/archives/2006/11/about_me.html – 59k – May 23, 2007
Poker Players, Poker Meetups, events, clubs and groups near …
“Hey, I have an ideal lets get everyone together on this page and have a tourney! please send me email if interested I will rent a club house where we can …poker.meetup.com/cities/us/ky/louisville/ – 58k –
Claudia and Pippo,What a great ideal for a website, expecially a family from Piedmont, about their history, family, food, and recipes, etc. ...www.pm-news.net/2002.htm – 17k
Left Behind – New York Times
What a great ideal!’’ To the Editor: After reading ‘’The One Who’s Left Behind,’’ my wife … What a great ideal!’’ Have I lost my traveling companion? .query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9B0DE7DB113BF933A0575BC0A961948260 – 23k –
This is a wonderful ideal, but how to get it work in the real world and not simply the theoretical? Draw from the ROIAL experience, of course. ...
www.roial.msu.edu/contests/hilden.html – 9k –
A caste system in schooling is a bad ideal | Special reports …
Apart from this material danger, the caste system in education is a bad ideal. It would be far better if the Spartan ideal of poverty were imposed on all …www.guardian.co.uk/fromthearchive/story/0,,1735198,00.html – 40k
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It’s not so uncommon either…
Google counts on May 24, 2007:
1,250,000 “What a great idea”
5,890 “What a great ideal”—eggcorn
I wonder if there’s a bit of an idiom blend of “What a great idea!” and “How ideal!” Even so, I’d probably still call it an eggcorn (along the same line of reasoning as Techwreck). It sounds as if the utterers think their idea is so great that they each replace it with the word “ideal.”
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You have know ideal of how many times I hear this phrase. I’ve heard it 3 times today already from 2 different people!
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