Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Shimmer me timbers!
https://www.facebook.com/doug.bingaman1
Lance was such a gentleman to take his coat off and wrap around my shoulder because I was shimmering from the cold weather.
fiction
(Though this example is from Google Books, it’s not one of those cases where a poorly reproduced font leads to a perceived misspelling. I checked.)
Maybe not enough of these out there to call it an eggcorn yet…
Offline
Interesting – both tremulous, but the one comprised of light rather than matter seems to have shimmied its way into more interesting contexts:
As every Wodehouse aficionado from England to India—where he is exceedingly popular—knows, Jeeves never walks. He materialises or shimmers or floats or glides or slides like a liquid mix of eel and ectoplasm.
The return tripper suggests, perhaps, a rather frostier shimmer?
A bank of candles near the altar provides a shivering light. On the altar itself, a husk of unidentifiable flesh bleeds onto a silver platter.
... illuminated by a shivering light through the bleak window of my soul, emptiness enshrouds this light in woe
Offline
Peter, I refrained from mentioning “shiver” for ‘shimmer” because I felt there was a high likelihood that the writer/speaker actually meant to convey the image of, e.g., a candle flame shivering back and forth, but I do agree that some of those are probably eggcorns.
Offline