Eggcorn Forum

My wife said this one the other day, clearly pronouncing [vist] rather than [vest].

They have given up the last vistage of respectability.

I asked her how she would spell it, and she spelled it so, but said that she understands it to mean “the last bit remaining”. I had hoped it would be something like “the last bit you can see”.
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There are lots of hits on the Internet. Just a few of them:

by Republican Organizing Committee · 1944 — to wipe out forever the last vistage of this vicious machine.

“Cowboys, the last vistage of the American West”...don’t remember where I read that, yet it is oh so true.

A wonderful description of old South Orange County and a rennasance woman of her time period Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2017 As a lover of history this book was awesome. I moved to Laguna Beach in 1969 and saw the last vistage of the time this book was describing. I taunt elementary school in EL Toro and again saw the last elements of this interesting era

(One hopes that he [ the name was “Bernie” ] taunt things other than spelling and gramma. And of course we all find awesome books that are lovers of history. The juxtaposition of “seeing” the last vistage is suggestive.) The following is from the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln:

The copy is in Nicolay’s handwriting but the endorsement is in Lincoln’s handwriting. Among the adverse reactions to Fremont’s proclamation was a telegram from James Speed, Louisville, September 3, 1861, which expressed the positive opinion that `` . . . that
foolish proclamation of Fremont.Page 507 . . . will crush out every vistage of a union party in the state. . . . ‘’ (DLC-RTL).

They who had every vistage of their life trampled on by the sandals of Rome, had but one constant, synagogue and the Law.

The Senate was one of the last vistages of the federated Republic that the USA was designed to be, and that’s why the Electoral College must remain as is.

I immediately made lemon curd. And after I spooned it into the jar, I licked every last vistage from the bowl.

If anybody is thinking vistage = ” visible remnant” , perhaps connecting it with visible, vision, view, vista, visage, etc. it is an eggcorn for me.

Other usages are probably purposeful and possibly punning (e.g. the Vistage company name), but may not be. And whether purposeful or not, the idea of a visible image may be prominent. E.g. this nice pic of a lake with late-summer foliage.

Enjoying the last vistage of summer Image [ https://twitter.com/IntrepidFoodie/stat … 3214685187 ]

The first image below did not evoke much of a “last view” for me, but the second one evoked the idea of trees disappearing into the midst of the mist:

FALL WINDOWS LAST VISTAGE CA$200.00 20”x8.5” unframed acrylic on paper A study of trees, the artist uses boths sides of the ground to go deep into his fall window view [ https://www.casprowitz.com/two-yellow-l … st-vistage ]

The Last Vistage Canvas Print [ https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the … nvas-print ]

And of course you can simply chock it up chalk full to spelling variation. It is perhaps telling (but hardly surprising given the pronunciation) that there don’t seem to be good examples of vistagial , but both vistige(s) and vistigial are plentiful. Vastiges , vestages , and vastages also occur, fwiw.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2023-10-23 19:30:21)