Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
A friend said they had been called several times by a “scamdrel” pretending to be from the IRS and wanting a credit card number to settle a tax debt. “Scamdrel” being a blend of scammer and scoundrel. A Google search came up with several hits for “scamdrel” but they were all mistaken optical character recognitions of “scoundrel” in old books with broken type.
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Probably not an eggcorn, due to the dissimilarity in pronunciation, but it’s a dandy blend—unless it was a purposeful pun. I’d suggest asking your friend if it was a pun or if they really think the word is scamdrel.
And welcome to the Eggcorn Forum, DeeEll!
Edit: Upon consideration, I think that in some dialects, “scamdrel” could be close enough in pronunciation to “scoundrel” for eggcornicity after all.
Last edited by Dixon Wragg (2016-07-28 18:44:06)
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