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#1 2017-07-14 09:26:18

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1222

'turnbine' for 'turbine'

Some weeks ago on TV a youngster misunderstood his father’s words and assumed that the wind turbine in question was a turnbine. With those great blades whirling about it certainly makes sense.

Conversion of Horse Mill including siting of Wind Turnbine to Form Dwellinghouse | Site To The South Of Tillychardoch Tarland Aboyne …

... of work in your old bones if you’d only apply yourself to it; and, mechanically, an overshot wheel with this head of water is about as efficient as a turnbine.

Our high speed turnbine dryers will dry most of your vehicle. Whatever they miss, we’ll get by hand on the outside (including the door jams).

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#2 2017-07-15 09:21:44

yanogator
Eggcornista
From: Ohio
Registered: 2007-06-07
Posts: 237

Re: 'turnbine' for 'turbine'

Peter Forster wrote:

Our high speed turnbine dryers will dry most of your vehicle. Whatever they miss, we’ll get by hand on the outside (including the door jams).

And then there’s the matter of “door jams”. It isn’t an eggcorn, but I’m sure it’s a common error, since “jamb” is an unusual word, and “jam” is pretty common. In the other direction, I did find “doorjamb” for “doorstop” in the database.


“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin

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#3 2017-07-17 12:29:22

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1222

Re: 'turnbine' for 'turbine'

Aye, there can’t be many of us who haven’t jambed a thum or finger, Bruce. I still have a knail which refuses to cease delaminating.
Returning to turning, it struck me earlier today, while removing bindweed or honeysuckle from roses, that what I saw as a redundant part of the word was actually quite supportive. “Bine” binds as it climbs, and it climbs anticlockwise. Turbines too used to follow nature until quite recently, it seems:

All major horizontal axis turbines today rotate the same way (clockwise) to present a coherent view. However, early turbines rotated counter-clockwise like the old windmills, but a shift occurred from 1978 and on. The individualist-minded blade supplier Økær made the decision to change direction in order to be distinguished from the collective Tvind and their small wind turbines. Some of the blade customers were companies that later evolved into Vestas, Siemens, Enercon and Nordex. Public demand required that all turbines rotate the same way, and the success of these companies made clockwise the new standard.

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#4 2017-07-18 07:34:01

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

Re: 'turnbine' for 'turbine'

Peter Forster wrote:

Public demand required that all turbines rotate the same way, and the success of these companies made clockwise the new standard.

Makes sense. A turbine that turned widdershins would be dysturbine.

Lots of hits for people wearing turbines, by the way, to wind and bind their hair. Originally a Turkish tülbent before the Portuguese got wind of it in India. So calling a turbine a turban may be an anticlockwise eggcorn. (I’m calling turban to turbine clockwise).

I checked – turbans are wound clockwise.

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#5 2017-07-29 12:49:54

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: 'turnbine' for 'turbine'

I checked – turbans are wound clockwise.

From the point of view of the wearer or the person wrapping it around the wearer’s head?


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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