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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2019-06-07 16:52:56

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

pause for concern

I just saw this one in an online news article; I had already collected a few other examples (starting in 1993), and there are plenty more online. It seems likely to be standard for some.

“The body was decomposed to a different degree as was in the first one but there were certain aspects of this crime that were very similar to the first so it was a pause for concern,” Craig said.

There was nothing to give us pause for concern

Some of this week’s walkouts give pause for concern – [Headline & first sentence of article]

If those numbers aren’t pause for concern, there’s this rather embarrassing number: […]

We think the USDCNH move back up through the 6.7190 level should be pause for concern for EURUSD as there is not much chart resistance …

“I don’t know of any business associations that give me pause for concern,” he said.

The Deloitte CFO quarterly survey should give any investor pause for concern. The numbers for this quarter show that 83 percent of those …

Brians lists this blooper as “pause for concern”, saying ‘Something worrisome can give you pause, or cause for concern. But some people confuse these two expressions and say they have “pause for concern.”’ As the examples above show, usage goes beyond giving or having it to the worrisome situation being a pause for concern. I think Brians is right that blending of “give you pause” and “give you (a cause for) concern” is probably going on for some, and probably other phrases like “(a) pause for thought/consideration/reflection” and “make you pause and reflect (in concern)” are involved as well.
.
Concern and consideration are relatively leisurely sorts of reactions to something dangerous or unpleasant, and in fact may require ceasing other activities so as to indulge in them, so the notion of pausing fits in eggcornishly in any case.
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I particularly liked the following example, where you get both the cause and the pause.

Shrinking Capacity And Lower Industrial Production Cause Pause For Concern. Garrett Cook.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2019-06-15 07:51:19)


*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 .)

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#2 2019-06-13 22:04:12

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

Re: pause for concern

An idiom blend that is also an eggcorn—“p” for “c” is a reasonable sound substitution.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#3 2019-06-15 07:56:34

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

Re: pause for concern

A dissimilation, avoiding the k… k… sequence of “cause for concern” by turning the first k sound into a p, might conceivably be involved. (Not that k… k… sequences are very hard to pronounce ―we do them all the time―, but a p… k… sequence has a slightly easier rhythm to it. It seems like I have some examples on the tip of my mind, but they’re not popping up at the moment. Well, try saying “kekkercorn” instead of “peppercorn”. Not as easy.)

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2019-06-15 13:42:36)


*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 .)

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