Eggcorn Forum

In lieu of the tragic events on September 11th, we will be donating 10% of net proceeds to the Red Cross.

In lieu of the possibility of war with Iraq…

In lieu of all that’s happened, I won’t be sending her a birthday card

However, in lieu of the fact that PR is an estrogen-induced target gene, and that its presence could serve to indicate ER functional capacity and tumour differentiation state [ 30], we also conducted stratified analyses on PR subtypes.

In lieu of these facts, we hypothesized that adding telmisartan to cisplatin (which is widely used chemotherapeutic agent for oral cancer) may be beneficial in oral cancer cachexia using chemically induced model of oral cancer.

That Elizabeth was able to maintain her composure in lieu of his words was a great feat indeed […] he watched his sister be scolded by little Sophia Gardiner for not breaking the bread into small enough pieces; a scolding his sister accepted with all the seriousness and consideration demanded in lieu of such an egregious faux pas.

It seems clear to me in these (and many other) examples that the speakers mean something like “considering” or “bearing in mind” (the tragic events or whatever). I think it is likely eggcorned off in view of .
.
This construction seems to be completely standard for some people. My sister reported hearing it three times in one week from a person, and the last quote above shows two examples from the same story. The meaning overlap of considering options is probably enough to help explain how people could come to confuse the two.
.
This [ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm … story.html ] (from way back in 1988) is a fun read. It was written by Thomas H. Middleton, (who may have been an actor or maybe an author of acrostics, or maybe that is the same person, or maybe he was somebody else.) Middleton reports this malapropism/eggcorn as widespread and standard, but discusses other issues and cases (such as homely < homelike and honing in on < homing in on).
.
A quote I hope to remember: “The most serious—perhaps the only really serious problem with malapropisms is that they sidetrack the listener away from what is being said. The guy who kept saying, “in lieu of” lost my attention almost entirely.” The article is entitled “A Malaprop in Lieu of His Attention.”
.
Well, one more quote: “I wish “homely” didn’t mean ugly. I’d like it to mean only homelike and natural. Unfortunately, passing laws and circulating petitions wouldn’t help. Language doesn’t respond to that sort of treatment, and all my efforts would have the impact of a kazoo at a rock concert.” Truer words were never spoken through falser teeth, as my brothers would say.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2022-07-14 11:07:34)