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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
This week’s postings in Anu Garg’s popular A.Word.A.Day series deal with hooks, the handy Scrabble words that can be formed from existing words by adding a letter at the beginning or end. Making “fritz†out of “ritz,†for example.
One of the hooks in Garg’s list is “ambit.†A “g†at the front gives us “gambit.†Interestingly, the two words have some overlap in meaning. “Ambit†refers to extent/compass. A gambit can be a plan, a strategem. Both deal with spheres of acton.
Half of the examples of “ambit†in modern English prose occur in the idiom “within the ambit of.†The idiom can be used quasi-literally, as in “within the ambit of the county lines,†or more figuratively, as in “within the ambit of my expertise.†A Google search for “within the gambit of†turns up many hundreds of eggcornish examples, such as:
Economics ezine: “According to reports, at least two major global banks are within the gambit of the US investigation that is looking at possible riggingâ€
Business web page: “Our USP is complete flexibility, to mould ourselves to clients needs, within the gambit of fair and honest business practicesâ€
Quote from a politico on a business blog: “The definitions are weak, the language is loose and vague and leaves much to interpretation, and it criminalizes all sorts of activities that do not even fall within the gambit of this Bill.â€
(The possible interpenetration of “ambit” and “gambit” was mentioned briefly in this earlier post on the Forum.)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Here’s an further variant which I find oddly compelling:
... in stemming the monstrous tide of corruption ravaging almost every aspect of the Nigerian life must be operated within the armpit of the law in …
... and military leadership within the armpit of Pakistani constitution. Before his interview Khan of Qalat who is also in exile in LONDON showed …
But let me add that as long as the fund-raising we did was and is still within the armpit of the law, then we have not breached any law.
Environmental Health practice has to be operated within the armpit of the relevant laws, rules and regulations.
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un-sweatin-believable!
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Sorry about this, but it occurs to me that some users of ‘armpit’ for ‘ambit’ may believe there is a meaningful connection to the idiomatic long arm of the law.
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A truly painful pun. Everyone in the clubhouse in favor of making Peter wear the “Long Distance Punner” sign and biting his tongue say Aye.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Och, Aye!
.
Peter, why must the arm be long if it has us all already in its pit?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Okay, my tongue is quite sore and the writing on the sign is now smeared and blurry from my tears of contrition, but the really sad thing is that I was serious.
It seems possible that users might not be familiar with the anatomical oxter, but be well acquainted with pits and arms. Along the lines of a snake pit, an arm pit could be the dwelling place of the upper limbs of jurisprudence – and could of course contain more than just two of them. I’ll stop now because I’m beginning to frighten myself, but first:
Peter, why must the arm be long if it has us all already in its pit?
You might think so, David, but things aren’t always as they seem:
In many instances community policing might be carried out outside the armpit of the legal framework, which could lead to the total breakdown of …
If he gets a friend to buy the shares, he is still guilty as this falls outside the armpit of the regulating law.
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