Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
From the Sacramento Bee:
The devastating Carr Fire in July may have been sparked by a flat tire, but that’s not how the wildfire got its name. And the Camp Fire now blazing through Butte County didn’t start in a campfire pit.
Since November 8th I have been breathing little bits of Butte County, California (nearly 200 miles from my home in Cotati), as well as, sadly, little bits of former Butte County residents. I must admit that I am one of those who initially thought that the Camp Fire started from a campfire. Likewise, I can easily believe that some thought the Carr Fire started with a burning car, or sparks from a car (though the relevant examples of “car fire” I found online gave no clues to help me distinguish between an eggcornish use of the term and mere misspelling). Actually, both of these fires, like many others, were named after roads near the fire’s origin. Carr is a common surname, so the eggcorn “Car Fire” would qualify as an Aunty Lehmann (a common-noun eggcorn derived from a proper-noun acorn). “Camp Creek Road”, from which the name Camp Fire is derived, may or may not be from someone’s surname, but Camp’s being part of the road’s proper name presumably qualifies “Camp Fire”, when interpreted eggcornishly, as an Aunty Lehmann too, and it’s also a stealth eggcorn (an eggcorn which doesn’t differ from its acorn either in spelling or pronunciation), even if “campfire” is usually spelled as one word.
Last edited by Dixon Wragg (2019-02-27 16:20:39)
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Good ones. Both have crossed my mind in listening to the news.
And given the smallness of the planet, the weight of the atmosphere and our tidal volumes, we are all breathing in traces of the California fires.
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For the woozy fire the hill fire the Fontana fire and all the ones I haven’t mentioned thank you fire fighters for risking your life
Online prayer
Feeling faint, an early reaper cushion of the Woolsey fire.
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All major coughlagrations.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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kem wrote:
All major coughlagrations.
What, are we speaking Phlegmish now?
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