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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Yesterday I heard someone say “repel against” in a context that meant “rebel against.” So I checked the web, and, sure enough, the mistake occurs on a number of web sites. Some examples below. If a speaker/writer intends to say that someone was in a state of rebellion and uses the word “repel,” then we have a full-bore eggcorn. But it can be difficult to tease out actual intentions. Some instances of “repel against” may not carry overtones of rebellion-the writer may be invoking a metaphor from physics (e.g., two magnets repelling each other). The quotations below have a context that seems to slant toward the eggcornical sense of “repel against.”
A post in a car forum: “I think we need to get everyone together and stop ripping on each other and start repeling against these damned rice burners.” (http://tinyurl.com/39k2xr)
An informal review of a sci-fi book: “And what if these virtual conscious beings end up repelling
against their creators? Repelling against you? ” (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/l … onCity.txt)
From the web’s greatest source of unmitigated illiteracy, a game board forum: ”...so we’re broadcasting our movements/plans whenever one of us posts a ‘hit’ – they just have to focus their efforts in turn on repelling against it.” (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=318500&page=44)
Transcript of a 2003 interview with CNN anchor Andrea Koppel: “They finally have their chance, and instead of doing the right thing, they’re doing the politically expedient thing, and that’s not what the people in America are expecting from their leadership in Washington, D.C. anymore. They’re repelling against it, why we’ve been winning across the country for the last three years.” (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ … un.06.html)
A letter to the editor of USA Today, posted on a blog: “These soldiers want out. everyone knows that a few more troops are not going to work. The generals even know.The people of Iraq do not want them there. They are repelling against ‘The American Aggression’.” (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/4910)
The online Somaliland Times, 2002: “They say women are casually repelling against men’s traditional authority as heads of family.” (http://www.somalilandtimes.net/Archive/ … 003300.htm)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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This one seems pretty eggcornish to me as there is a clear image in place. Odd, though, that people wouldn’t know the word “rebel” (in either its verb or noun forms). And linguistically, “rebel against” almost seems the equivalent of a double negative, as “to repel” means to push against or away from (my definition, not Webster’s). But still, relative to eggcorns, I think it would qualify, no?
Feeling quite combobulated.
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Yes, strange that these people wouldn’t know how to use the verb “rebel” correctly. I’m bothered about that too. One suspects that they have a two-tier vocabulary module, one in which the verb “rebel against” is used correctly, and another in which “repel against” is substituted when there are suggestions of physical revocation.
“Against” is a preposition, so it doesn’t constitute a double negative. It’s more of a reinforcement. Reinforcing prepositions and adverbial particles are common in informal speech-crossing over, going along with, running up against, falling down, etc.. These may be the most mysterious language events in English. And the hardest for a non-native speaker to use appropriately. A bit like the “Ã ” or “de” problem in French (Knowing exactly when a French sentence wants an “Ã ” or a “de” after nouns and verbs either proves that you are a native speaker of French or that you are seriously in need of a life.).
Last edited by kem (2007-12-25 01:06:49)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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‘revel against’ is also pretty common (700+ ghits). Like ‘repel against’ it may either be an eggcorn or a misspelling. It gives me an image of cheerful insurrection, but maybe that’s just me. Examples:
The people that run MoveOn or ANSWER (or any organization) can not organize anything against the federal government that would cause people to revel against …
2012.tribe.net/thread/f4e59b7e-2fae-4102-9fff-841657117e4d
I revel against that sort of inhumanity every single day.
forum.newsarama.com/archive/index.php/t-42327.html
Rivero did not revel against the British, I know he did revel against what was left of Vernet’s party and BA’s newly appointed governor to the islands …
www.falklands-malvinas.com/forum/viewto … a8ae0e7…
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I wonder if “revel” (presumably pronounced in the users’ minds as re-VELL or reh-VELL) is just a consequence of the similarity between the V and B consonant sounds? Especially in Spanish, the two are almost indistinguishable. And I suspect that the words revel and revelry might be thrown into the mix to add a little confusion.
It reminds me that revelry and two similar words used to confuse me: reveille, revelry, and reverie. (Also Calvary and cavalry, but that is a different story.) I could figure out the three R words when I read them but sometimes confused them when I heard them spoken.
Last edited by JonW719 (2007-12-26 00:43:04)
Feeling quite combobulated.
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I am gobsmacked by the frequency of “revel against.” Just when I think we have plumbed the depth of net illiteracy, a new trapdoor opens in the floor.
It must be a spelling mistake. The imagery transfer between “rebel” and “revel” is slight. More telling, though, is the stress difference noted by JonW719 (ree-BELL vs REV-uhl). Hard to imagine all those people saying “REV-uhl uh-GINST). Unless, of course, they are in the habit of pronouncing the verb “rebel” like the noun form. I’m wondering—are there dialects of English where speakers commonly say “he REB-uhld against authority?” The noun form, I would think, is much more frequently used than the verb in U. S. dialects because of the word’s association with Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Perhaps there are pockets in the Southern states where the noun and the verb both have a penultimate stress.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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kem wrote:
I am gobsmacked by the frequency of “revel against.” ... The imagery transfer between “rebel” and “revel” is slight.
Maybe the relation will be made evident, come the revelution. But I’m here to post these, which show that JonW719 is not the only one who has trouble keeping reveille and reverie straight. Reveille snaps you out of your reverie, after all.
“If Cooper killed you’re brother, he deserved to die.†Ressler spoke, breaking out of his reveille.
http://shores-and-life-worlds-away.tumb … -in-a-room
The ringing doorbell snapped him out of his reveille.
https://www.literotica.com/s/karens-sister-christy
See also revelry for reverie.
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JonW719 wrote:
I wonder if “revel” (presumably pronounced in the users’ minds as re-VELL or reh-VELL) is just a consequence of the similarity between the V and B consonant sounds? Especially in Spanish, the two are almost indistinguishable. And I suspect that the words revel and revelry might be thrown into the mix to add a little confusion.
It reminds me that revelry and two similar words used to confuse me: reveille, revelry, and reverie. (Also Calvary and cavalry, but that is a different story.) I could figure out the three R words when I read them but sometimes confused them when I heard them spoken.
your data is authentic and yet point of focus to evoke to rethink
http://1banglachoti.com
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