Eggcorn Forum

Grasp is sometimes used for gasp , as in Ken L’s grasping for breath . Unsurprisingly, the error happens sometimes the other way around. Gasping at straws may be the most common context for this; again Ken L caught it, and David B added gasping through straws here . In Ken’s phrase I link the gasping with a sense of desperation, but especially in David’s I think of a drinking straw through which greatly restricted breathing apparatus one gasps, rather than a thin but solidly cylindrical piece of a dried plant stem. (Do we all gasp the seriousness of wearing masks to stop the vire Covid vilus?)
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The gasp < grasp substitution occurs in contexts of mental grasping/gasping as well.

it’s too hot outside to do anything so you are floating through the scorching sun trying to gasp the surrounding beauty

they could easily acknowledge to themselves that she could often gasp things they would not.

To better understand where the two states of technology differ, it is crucial to gasp the meaning and definition of each one.

I find the book very complicated to understand, had to take up some classes at a university and it was a lot simpler to gasp the concept.

It may, of course, in most or even all cases, be a spelling mistake, omission typo or whatever you call it. Those, we all know, produce malapropisms easily enough. But I wonder if there isn’t in some cases the notion that a concept that one apprehends could cause enough surprise or delight to make you suck in your breath. Or perhaps achieving an insight is arduous and thus might prompt heavy breathing?

Aghasp is somewhat relevant.

Btw, Kem or whoever fixed the site again, Thanks!

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2022-01-18 04:30:38)