Eggcorn Forum

Welcome to the Eggcorn Forum, worksanddays!

Of the examples you cite, I don’t see most of them as eggcorns. Instead they seem to be misspellings, typos, poor word choices, errors caused by spell-check programs, etc. Most of them miss eggcornicity by not having a plausible meaning connection between acorn and eggcorn, others miss the mark by not being pronounced anywhere near the same, and still others are just plain obvious misspellings. I think these are the ones that may actually be eggcorns:

“wrecked havoc” – wrecked for wreaked
“After what felt like an entirety”—entirety for eternity
“Could she have dosed off”—dosed for dozed
“not shearly for fashion”—shearly for solely
“only the occasional roadside distraction”—I think he means “attraction”
“guys repelling form helicopters”—rappelling
“a world of shock and ah”—shock and awe
“You have to limit yourself on how many “get her done” and “gag me with a spoon” you can have in your life. Youthamism are just that, for the youth to use…”

Some of these have already been discussed in this forum. I recommend doing this whenever considering posting here: Go to the second search field on the Eggcorn Database page, the one marked “Google Search”, and see if your proposed eggcorn (or other treat) has already been discussed. If so, you may want to add to an existing relevant thread rather than proliferating new threads for the same eggcorn. (It took me awhile to figure this out, so now I mention it to newbies as needed to facilitate their assimilation.)

yanogator wrote:

In “not shearly for fashion”, “shearly” isn’t for “solely”, but just a misspelling of “sheerly”

Yeah, probably not an eggcorn, though the substitution could be shaped by the relationship of shears (scissors) to fashion.

Dixon Wragg wrote:

Of the examples you cite, I don’t see most of them as eggcorns. Instead they seem to be misspellings, typos, poor word choices, errors caused by spell-check programs, etc. Most of them miss eggcornicity by not having a plausible meaning connection between acorn and eggcorn, others miss the mark by not being pronounced anywhere near the same, and still others are just plain obvious misspellings. I think these are the ones that may actually be eggcorns: [snip]

The ones you chose for your list are interesting… ““Could she have dosed off”—dosed for dozed”—that’s one of the ones that I didn’t think was an eggcorn because it seemed more like a misspelling with no added meaning. I almost didn’t include it. So it’s interesting that’s one of the few you included in your list. I think deciding which are eggcorns is very subjective. Also, I don’t think most of these are misspellings. The author of the blog mentioned that he types with two fingers, making misspellings less common since he is looking at the keyboard and typing slowly and methodically, not typing quickly while looking at the screen (as I do.. and I make a lot of typos). He definitely made a lot of grammatical errors and other mistakes, but as far as simple typos, I didn’t see as many of them. That’s why I’m pretty certain that he meant to type these words the way he did. Also, many of them require more than one letter changed to form the word he typed.

Here is my pared down list of the ones I really think are eggcorns. I took out possible misspellings or ones that didn’t add meaning. For the ones that you didn’t include in your list, I’ve added my defense of why they should be included, in bold, and why I think they add meaning. I also included some links, in the cases where someone had already written about it in the forum or database.

I think these are all the ones that are actually eggcorns:

“wrecked havoc” – wrecked for wreaked—on your list

“and not every well rounded.”—every for very—I can see this as an eggcorn because “very” and “every” both have the meaning of “a lot”

“After what felt like an entirety”—entirety for eternity—on your list

“Could she have dosed off”—dosed for dozed—on your list

“this stuck her as odd”—stuck for struck—this has added meaning because it’s like the thought “stuck” to her brain.

“to help alive the professors”—alive for alleviate—It’s like they are helping the professors stay more alive by alleviating their pain/stress

“What is left for me to due”—due for do—The word “due” can have various meanings that all include obligation, expectation, and requirement. So I see this as, the whole phrase is about obligation, like, “what things are still due for me to do.”

“and if that means having to let out a sigh everyone and a while”— I see this as similar to the original phrase, but instead of referring to various time periods, he makes it mean various people. It still kind of works.

“not shearly for fashion”—shearly for solely—Someone posted that he could have meant “sheerly” but after looking up the definitions, I don’t see how that could work in context. He meant “such-and-such is used not only for fashion but for…” I guess he could have meant “solely”, mistaken it for “sheerly” and then misspelled it.

“With just a carload of his belongs”—belongs instead of belongings. This is too different to be a misspelling. Not sure if it adds meaning, but it kind of turns “belong” into a noun and the makes it plural.

“only the occasional roadside distraction”—I think he means “attraction”—on your list

“for time to time”—should be “from time to time”— Instead of meaning that someone, for example, likes singing from one individual time, to another time—it means someone likes singing FOR a time, and then for another time. It kind of tweaks the meaning a little. I think the cause here is the common phrase “for a time.” Actually, I find it easier to parse “for time to time” than “from time to time”!

“so that is the exclusion”—he means “that is the exception” (it’s clear with the rest of the paragraph)—Both exclusion and exception have similar meanings, namely setting something apart from a group. He is talking about how he never stayed in one place for a whole school year, except ninth grade, “so that is the exclusion.” So, ninth grade is excluded from the pattern of having to move in the middle of every school year.

“Sometimes I do not know how well receipted my work is going to be”—he means “well received”—these are spelled too differently to just be a misspelling. The fact that the two words have very similar meanings doesn’t really make it less of an eggcorn in my opinion

“but it is only on the count that”— This is included in the forum: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=4797 It changes “account”—meaning “reason” to “the count,” which could mean “the count [of reasons]” or simply “the count of everything being considered in this instance.” It’s a little hard to tease out, but since he said “on THE count of” instead of “on A count of” I don’t think it’s just a misspelling.

“The propose of work”—propose for purpose—I think this adds meaning, since it kind of makes it “the reason work is proposed, is because…”

“I have mutter through it”—he means “I have muddled through”—Mutter means “say something in a low or barely audible voice, especially in dissatisfaction or irritation.” So it kind of implies that he “muttered though” the task, he was muttering while doing it because it was difficult or he was unclear about it. The difference between speaking normally and muttering is kind of the difference between doing something correctly and “muddling through.” So I think it adds meaning.

“I had been duked”—he means duped—This one is already mentioned in the forum: ”>http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=171*