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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2006-11-13 14:09:13

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1224

"eek out" for "eke out"

eke out – 635,000 ghits
eek out – 152,000 ghits

‘Eek’ is ’ a sound made in fear’ – Wikipedia, and possibly an appropriate sound for those obliged to ‘eke out’ a living in a harsh and unsympathetic world. It could also, I must acknowledge, simply be 152,000 spelling errors…

I beg to differ Eggy ;) The reason you’re not seeing alot of hype over pokemon in australia is that most of us have gone underground trying to eek out an …
www.destructoid.com/pokemon-diamond-pea … out-japan 63k –

Save yourself a lot of grief by cleaning up your programme chain before trying to eek out the last bits of an MPEG algorithm – it’s all a waste of time if …
www.radioacademy.org/techcon/2002/4audi … yonmpg.doc

High in the Andes above 3500m these birds eek out a living on the microscopic algae and zooplankton that survive in the highly saline waters. ...
www.lyonimages.co.uk/flamingo/press.html – 27k

Wherever there’s water on Earth – in liquid form, at a temperature within a reasonable range – life manages to eek out an existence; from bacteria …
www.open2.net/truthwillout/ET/etindex.htm – 22k

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#2 2010-07-23 10:12:12

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Re: "eek out" for "eke out"

For some reason I decided to go hunting for the variant ache out a living and came up with just three. (Perhaps there might be others with slightly different construction, but I decided to preserve the form of the usage “eke out a living.”) I was a bit surprised there weren’t more examples, so rather than starting a new thread I decided to tack this onto an old post from Peter. The same analysis applies regarding the pain associated with “eek” and “ache” ... for the most part.

Up Station Mountain Club: Fru Ndi Speaks Out On…Jul 15, 2005 … Members of your NEC and most of your militants are civil servants who besides struggling to ache out a living from the cathecist allowance …
www.postnewsline.com/2005/07/fru_ndi_speaks_.html – Cached

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF CHILD LABOURby VR Sankangoudar – 2002
way of life, as a result of which they can’t ache out a living with their meager agricultural income. Monthly family income from the property …
dspace.vidyanidhi.org.in:8080/dspace/bitstream/.../KAR-2002-051-4.pdf

Should you go to Law School? – http://www.cannabis-videos.com/Jul 11, 2010 … I know tons of guys who studied business, social sciences and journalism who now have to ache out a living and that’s only because they …
www.cannabis-videos.com/.../should-you- … chool.html – Cached

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#3 2010-07-23 16:47:52

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: "eek out" for "eke out"

“Ache out a living” hurts good like a good ache-corn should.
A bridge might also be made from eke —> eek —> meek, through the Sermon on the Mount blended a bit with meagre/meager. Several dozen hits.

Japan Today comment
I think one of the biggest injustices in society is that people who mostly sit around and tell other people what to do get paid millions of dollars while people we force to clean human waste meek out a barely-comfortable living.

UNICEF and human development
Peggy says without hesitation that she does not wish to meek out a meagre living the way her parents do.

Stargate fanfic
A few different kinds of small bushes managed to meek out a living below the canopy, giving the area an unreal feel.

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#4 2010-07-24 15:01:49

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: "eek out" for "eke out"

In both 2008 and 2009, Kem volunteered for the burdensome job of compiling all the likely eggcorn candidates for a comprehensive end-of-the-year list. I’ve always found this awe-inspiring—I read and type far too slowly to accomplish what he does every year, and I’m always amazed when I see one of those lists. But I wonder whether even Kem might find this year’s eggcorn load daunting—this thread gives an example of just how much gold has been buried in posts that aren’t helpfully pointed to in the topic line.

Last edited by patschwieterman (2010-07-24 15:02:13)

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#5 2014-05-30 00:55:19

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

Re: "eek out" for "eke out"

Here’s the example I stumbled on recently:

[Rogen] eeks out one more successful variation of his stock immature protagonist.
movie review

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#6 2017-07-12 08:24:44

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2853

Re: "eek out" for "eke out"

FWIW, a recent entry in Anu Garg’s A.Word.A.Day featured a cartoon connecting “eke out” and “eek out.”


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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