Eggcorn Forum

Barbara Wallraff gave us a scratch behind the ears yesterday in her syndicated post in the Kingston, Ontario, Whig Standard (http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1691348). Wallraff is an author of several books on words and the erstwhile author of an Atlantic Monthly column on words. She has written on eggcorns before (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/word-court).

In the newspaper piece Wallraff notes that several modern dictionaries now include “untracked” with the meaning “out of a slump.” A sports team on a losing streak, for example, hopes it can get untracked and start winning. The dictionaries, she points out, show that “untracked” is an American expression that has been around since at least the 1930s.

The passage in the Whig Standard goes on to say:

I take consolation from a scholarly website named the Eggcorn Database. It collects what it calls “unusual spellings” or “non-standard reshaping” and I call mistakes. The site considers “untracked” to be an eggcorn.

The section of our database that she probably refers to is at http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/28/untracked/ . The entry, which was added in 2004, references a Language Log posting by Arnold Zwicky at http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/language … 01390.html .

Ear scratches are always appreciated, but I’m not sure we deserved this one. The evidence about the origin of “untracked” that Wallraff gives undermines the database entry, which implies that “get untracked” started out as an error for “get on track.” The Language Log posting cited by the entry calls “untrack” a “reanalysis” of “on track.” It’s not likely, however, that one of these expressions gave rise to the other. We appear to be dealing with two independently-derived, sound-alike expressions with parallel meanings.

“Untrack” may have been birthed from “track” in the early part of the twentieth century. A “track,” after all, can have negative associations. We praise those brave enough to go “off the beaten track.” We hope to escape the ruts, the tracks, that imprison the less adventurous. Getting untracked can sometimes be a good idea, and the idea may have fathered the new word.

“On track” is also an Americanism. The sense of “on track” that means on schedule, as planned may not be very old. The earliest citation I can find using Internet resources dates from the 1930s. In the nineteenth century “on track” was a mercantile expression meaning that the materials to be delivered were already rail shipped. At a commodity exchange, for example, one might buy “goods on track.” The more modern sense of being on schedule may be derived from this business idiom.¹

Correcting the impression given by the database entry that “on track” is the source of “untracked” doesn’t fix the problems with our database entry, however. “On track” usually occurs a predicate adjective following a copulative verb (is, stay, get, etc.). Its parallel would be, as the database entry notes, the past participle of “untrack.” “Untracked,” though, has an extra syllable. So the sounds of the two expressions are not all that close. I can’t find a clear example on the web of someone substituting “untracked” for “on track.”

If we are going to cite a real eggcorn in this entry, we need to look at two other switches that have a greater sound similarity. First, a speaker could use “untrack” in place of “on track.” I can only find a few examples of this error. Here’s one:

Web press release: “Apparently with a literal translation we can all appear to be untrack to achieving our goals… ”

We could argue that the speakers/writers are influenced by the semantics of “untrack” in these substitutions. My suspicion, though, is that they are just misspellings.

Second, “on track” could be verbed, turned into the past participle “ontracked,” then used to replace “untracked.” This is a more promising approach. I can find a number of examples of this switch. One of them:

Post to SF 49ers message board: “Nolan is building a defensive jaugernaut that is why the offense is behind the defense. So now that you all know there is going to be some lag here before it gets ontracked.”

When and if entries ever get reviewed in our database, I suggest changing the entry to “untracked >> ontracked,” emphasizing the etymological independence of the terms “untrack” and “on track,” and giving examples of the “ontracked/untracked” substitutions. As it stands, the entry not only does not reference an eggcorn, it propagates an etymological error.

Barbara Wallraff must be a kind person. She has scratched the ears of one ugly dog.
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(1) Some web sources point to a different railroad metaphor as the origin of “being on track.” A train that is not derailed is “on (the) track.” An enticing guess, but nothing more than speculation. The well-established sense of “on track” as “shipped” is a much more likely precursor.

Last edited by kem (2009-08-09 19:29:28)