Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
Unsurprisingly, it is in Paul Brians’ list , but doesn’t seem to be discussed elsewhere on the site. It is not uncommon, and has appeared more than a few times in published works:
...clouds boiling down from the sky. By the first peel of thunder we are drifting …
the peels of the Liberty Bell
As she was opening the door she heard a dreadful chord followed immediately with more peels of laughter.
a flash of lightning split the sky, followed seconds later by a peel of thunder rolling overhead.
It is probably mostly just a misspelling (“ea†and “ee†both being extremely common spellings for the [i] vowel in English), but may have some grounds for eggcornic interpretations. I get a bit of the picture of ripping off peels of laughter or thunder being like a piece of ripe fruit spinning so fast the skin comes loose and suddenly peels off in strips.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I get a bit of the picture of ripping off peels of laughter or thunder being like a piece of ripe fruit spinning so fast the skin comes loose and suddenly peels off in strips.
I can see/hear/smell/feel that. Have we a toe or two in the scented waters of synaesthesia I wonder? Peal, both noun and verb, is also a plural for a set of bells. The connection with fruit came early:
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St Clement’s . . .
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