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Chris -- 2025-05-10
I heard someone say ‘philantrophy’ the other day – an easy slip of the lip – but the trophy and its implications only emerge in its written form and even here its appearance could be purely accidental given the frequency with which our fingers go awry.
Uncharitable doubts about charitable acts are nothing new, as in Dickens’ Mrs Jellyby who exhibits telescopic philanthropy while ignoring the poverty which surrounds her. “Virtue-signalling” was coined as recently as 2015 and much do-gooding in recent times can be suspected of being a means of nourishing self-esteem or gaining some advantage.
Our colleagues Dr. Rolf Alter and Timo Unger contributed in the Philantrophy Impact Magazine with an article about effects on Philantrophy due …
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Philantrophy is an internal and beautiful description of public spirit ; and the local philantrophist is arduously engaged in promoting every plan of moral …
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Interesting. In the case you heard, I suppose it was pronounced [fillANtrafee] rather than [fill-an-TROE-fee]. So it would seem that the issue is (re)producing the sound rather than perceiving the word trophy in the pronunciation.
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Of course once you write the switched pronunciation down on paper the word jumps out at you. It could also be produced by switching keystrokes, and conceivably, the spoken version you heard came from such a misspelling without perception of trophy . But perhaps those who read and write the word more often than they ever hear or say it then take it in the eggcornish way you suggest. But I would expect them to pronounce it [fill-an-TROE-fee] if they ever came to saying it out loud.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2022-10-22 18:08:39)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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