Eggcorn Forum

Assange should face the trumpet music “You can claim they are trumpeted up charges if you like, but he still should go to court to either face the music or clear his name”

The kind of person who would bring false charges is probably a tramp…
This substitution seems particularly common in reports from Africa.

What legal remedies can you apply to defend yourself against persons who have taken you to court over tramped up charges?

Hichilema, however, believes the move is a countrywide ploy to implicate opposition leaders and throw them in jail on tramped up charges.

But maybe it actually has more to do with something that’s been walked upon, since I also see:

This comes after media reports over the weekend indicating that a plan has already been hatched to frame religious with trampled up charges as to muzzle them.

Stories of him being a victim of some trampled up charges and false allegations are being repeatedly posted in the internet, but are silent in the mainstream media.

Last edited by fpberger (2012-09-11 19:49:54)

While “ramped up” as a verb phrase is a legitimate idiom, the use of it as a modifier of “charges” seems to be an eggcorn. It seems to change the meaning of the idiom (trumped up meaning fabricated) to charges which, while not completely unwarranted, are more severe than necessary.

Comment on Assange: “It makes me wonder if this is bigger than just the ramped up charges against him.”

Juvenile injustice: “The charges reported are completely unjust given the alleged act, and illustrate the widespread issue in juvenile justice of ramped up charges against young people whose behavior is typical of adolescents their age.”

Last edited by larrybob (2012-09-11 22:05:22)

I got an email referring to a former employee’s proposed letter of recommendation for himself as “triumphed up.” I really don’t know whether that was an eggcorn for “trumped up.” Maybe the writer could not bring herself to write “Trump” in any context. And the usual meaning of “trumped up” wouldn’t fit the context very well. But “triumphed up” is not exactly idiomatic. So I’m inclined to call eggcorn on it.

burred wrote:

Interesting mutation. I remain agnostic because of the large pronunciation gap in triumphed up, and the lack of a clear meaning motivation. Maybe it’s a spell-check error based on trumphed up? Today, there are 45 raw hits for “trumphed up charges OR accusations OR evidence”, and 42 for “triumphed up charges OR accusations OR evidence”.

“Trumphed up”, and maybe, by extension, “triumphed up”, could conceivably have an eggcornish meaning connection due to the “umph” being associated with imparting “umph” (or “oomph”) to something—that is, to energize it. There’s still a notable lack of pronunciation similarity between “triumph” and “trump”, but not so much for “trumph”/”trump”.