Eggcorn Forum

I ran across this one this morning. It’s probably an omission typo most of the time, though it would probably be pronounced [lu] and so might seem correct to those who remember imperfectly the standard, Frenchified spelling. 216K hits were reported, so whatever those numbers actually mean, I guess it’s not terribly uncommon.

In leu of in-person engagement, a range of virtual engagement options are available, including a virtual meeting

BA/BS in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development or other relevant field, or 4 years additional HR experience in leu of degree.

A non-refundable move-in fee of $300 to $500 is required in leu of a security deposit.

An interesting note: two identical quotes came from the Merriam-Webster.com site , attributed to two different Florida newspapers (both of which apparently published the same obituary), with the note: “These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word ‘leu.’ ”

In leu of flowers, please donate to Fisher House, an organization that helps military families.

The quotes are supposed to illustrate the entry on the leu (cognate with leo the lion) which is “the basic monetary unit of Moldova and Romania”, and the other example sentences reflect that meaning. Be interesting to know what M-W’s algorithm is to keep that from happening more often now that they are “automatically” selecting examples. I wonder if it thought that the co-occurrence of a currency term with the notion of donation justified including the examples? (If you want to spend your leus ―or lei to use the correct term―quite the Hawaiian coincidence that!― on flowers, send them to Fisher House?)

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2021-05-07 13:24:36)