Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
A “ruralism” first heard and not considered slang in Roseburg, Oregon.
Last edited by Wordsmyth (2016-10-23 18:53:11)
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Apparently Roseburg is not a one-off. I haven’t heard this one, either. But it is common enough to have made it into M-W. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spendy
“Spendy” is not an eggcorn—not enough sound overlap. But the common “expendsive” spelling of “expensive” (see this Google search ) seems like it has an eggcorn bias. Interestingly, there is no etymological connection between “expensive,” which comes from a Latin source, and “spend,” which is good AS.
Last edited by kem (2016-10-28 12:43:19)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Spendy for me is just another way of saying expensive. It is too etymologically cognate to qualify as a worthy eggcorn. Spendy is what expensive means, directly. Spend comes from Medieval Latin expendere after all, or some say dispendere. It is said to be Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, but borrowed from Latin nonetheless. The first use of spend was apparently in the 13th c. (i.e. the Middle English period), according to MW. Look what Skeat has to say:
spend (L.) A.S. spendan to spend. Shortened from L. dispendere, to spend, waste, consume. We find Low L. spendium for dispendium, spensa for dispensa ; also spendibilis moneta, money for expenses (A.D. 922). So also Ital. spendere, to spend, spendio (=L. dispendium), expense.—L. dis-, away, apart ; pendere, to weigh out, pay.
I would ask for spendibilis moneta but no one would know what I was talking about. We can imagine a polyglot future world where things like that will be possible – just ask your phone, or the less obtrusive future equivalent.
Last edited by David Bird (2016-10-28 22:13:06)
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