Eggcorn Forum

Discussions about eggcorns and related topics

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to if you wish to register.

The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.

Thanks for your understanding.

Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2017-08-22 17:58:40

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

vagamundo < vagabundo

The Real Academia Española periodically inducts (induces?) new words into the official canon of Spanish, to the horror of some and the pleasure of others.
.
Among a recent crop is one we might suspect of being an eggcorn. Vagabundo means vagabond, and is probably about as analyzable as vagabond in English, though Spanish does have a verb vaga® which means to wander. The newly accepted form is vagamundo , which substitutes mundo “world” for the last two syllables. The syntactic form works very well too, with vaga-mundo coming out equivalent to “world wanderer” (c.f. trota-mundo(s) “globe-trotter”.
.
It might well have been eggcornish in origin: on the other hand it might have been a conscious pun. And of course once you’ve become widespread enough to be accepted by the RAE, you have left eggcorn territory and wandered into the world of folk-etymology or something of that sort.

[9. Vagamundo. Por su composición (vagar + mundo), podría parecer que es una palabra más lógica que la archiconocida vagabundo, pero frente a su predecesora la RAE la ha considerado en este caso como vulgarismo.

= “Vagamundo. By its composition (wander + world), it might appear that this is a more logical word than the arch-wellknown word vagabond, but given the contrast to its predecessor, the RAE has considered it in this case to be a vulgarism.” ]


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

Offline

 

#2 2017-08-22 18:39:14

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: vagamundo < vagabundo

My memory and my technique are failing me. Kem and I had discussed this one before , and I should have found that discussion if I would of had looked, like as I ought to have did.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

Offline

 

#3 2017-08-26 10:32:21

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

Re: vagamundo < vagabundo

One of the pleasures of maturity is being able to quote yourself instead of others. A kind of self-plagiarism.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

Offline

 

#4 2017-08-29 09:16:56

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

Re: vagamundo < vagabundo

kem wrote:

One of the pleasures of maturity is being able to quote yourself instead of others. A kind of self-plagiarism.

I invented the word plagiarism, you know. ;)


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

Offline

 

#5 2017-08-29 13:20:25

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: vagamundo < vagabundo

Somebody ought to destacar (how do you say that in English? bring to prominence? emphasize till people finally see it?) in the public mind the fact that 99.9% of the words you ever use are plagiarized, and the vast majority of the phrases as well, and virtually all of the grammatical constructions. You can’t talk, or write, without doing it, and without many others having done it before you.
.
A colleague of mine used to say, relative to developing indigenous literatures in the world’s languages, it pays to copy and calque freely: “plagiarism promotes progress”.
.
Yes, there comes a point where using somebody else’s coinage without giving credit is reprehensible, but it is a much more complicated issue than many think. Often the important point is whether a word, phrase, sentence, anecdote etc. is right or wise or true or helpful or funny or fitting for a new context, and much less who gets the credit for having come up with it.
.
(End rant.)

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2017-08-30 04:37:59)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

Offline

 

Board footer

Powered by PunBB
PunBB is © 2002–2005 Rickard Andersson
Individual posters retain the copyright to their posts.

RSS feeds: active topicsall new posts