Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I’m not at all sure what’s going on here; both pistols and pestles are held in one hand and have one end dedicated to damage, and as there are also examples of pistles and pistils (there is even a mortar and pizzle!) it could be that some varieties of English sound the ‘t’ of pestle and the vowel has simply drifted.
It may be that ‘mortar’ in its weapon sense is exerting some influence?
‘mortar and pistol’ – 448 ghits
I grind them with a mortar and pistol and sprinkle the mixture over the greens. Last fall, I dehydrated a lot of vegetables and stored them in glass jars. ...
www.milkandhoneyfarm.com/kitchen/winter_salad.html – 17k –
... table with a few giant candles in the center and some herbs lined up around one side of the table and a mortar and pistol with something ground inside. ...
forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=92111&page=16 – 116k
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This is a nice find Peter. It inspired me to research “Mortar and PEDESTAL” and add it to the forum. I recall hearing the eggcorn which I posted (ghits=105) long ago, but not yours (ghits= 354). (I always find that sort of thing rather bizarre). By the way, keep up the hunting: you are just a few posts shy of Eggcornista status.
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Hmmmm. . . since “pestle” is pronounced “pessel” and not “pestel,” I’ll bet the eggcorn “pistol” has been influenced by the spelling of the correct word. Perhaps this spelling is a hypercorrection
by someone who has seen “pestle” in print but has never heard it pronounced? If so, it’s not an eggcorn at all.I can’t think of another example of an eggcorn where the erroneous choice of word has been influenced by the spelling of the original, but there must be one.
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