Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
First saw it here:
http://www.expotimes.net/backissuesfeb/ … 3feb04.htm
1992: A military coup de tat. The constitutional process to multi party politics obstructed.
But there are many more examples on the web, eg
http://www.bigmattress.com/mt-archives/ … detat.html
and
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/ar … read=45160
(“there are currently deep divisions within the military and Joints Chiefs of Staff bordering on mutiny and a coup de tat”) – here it also appears as “coup d’tat”
Clearly there are people who think there is such a thing as a “tat”
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Evidence that this may be an eggcorn rather than just difficulty with a foreign phrase comes in the existence of rap band called Coup Da’Ta, see
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageart … dID=155052
“Coup Da’Ta(pronounced coup de tat)a philly based group bent on keeping the orignal elements of hip hop alive.Backed by strong political and social conscience insight,this team can well be the most controversial group to emerge from the 215.
Why this name?
A coup de tat is an overthrow of a governing power by force.The name was given by nature as we see ourselves as that force”
I think there may be an element of onomatopoeia here – sound of bullets?
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Okay, it took me a second to get this—you’re arguing that the “tat” in “coup de tat” might be related to the representation of gunfire as sounding like “rat a tat tat,” etc.
I guess that’s a possibility, but that quotation you’ve cited doesn’t seem like a real strong argument for the working of onomatopoeia here.
Many Americans have a passing familiarity with Spanish—in which “de” is pronounced a bit like “day.” And so when they hear a “day-like” “de” in an obviously foreign phrase, they have a tendency to assume that the “de” must be separate from the word that follows it. I think that that has happened here—the people using the “coup de tat” spelling are thinking of a Spanish rather than a French pronunciation of “de.” If so, this isn’t an eggcorn. It’s still interesting as an instance of popular etymology, however.
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When I saw this one, I thought maybe the phrase “tit for tat” had something to do with this version of tat.
I agree, though, that since this is a foreign phrase it’s likely just a mis-spelling.
-Francesca
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