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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Ben Zimmer contributed the eggcorn ‘skew’ for ‘skewer’ to the database. This converse eggcorn is also fairly common. To skewer is to attack or mock, so when an opinion or a mathematical distribution is ‘skewered’ rather than skewed, the asymmetry or partiality of the opinion or distribution is being held up as evidence of attack or tampering. Examples:
I agree with lots of The folks on here that think The polls are inherently skewered to The right.
www.smirkingchimp.com/viewtopic.php?top … start=1150
Your views are so skewered to the right by what you see in the main stream media, that you don’t even see past the blinders put on you by your own party!
bigpumpkins.com/msgboard/ViewThread.asp?b=13&p=92301
As for the film…yes it was skewered to the left and it was supposed to be.
www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1 … oding=UTF8
so, if Morris says Time is skewered to The left, is that worth 5 points—Bush really has what, a 20 -25 point lead?
www.macminute.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/sh … age=10&am.
They also criticized the skewered distribution of food aid along political party lines, and the government’s controversial land reforms…
www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_19696_ENG_HTM.htm
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Hits on Google:
Skewer the results: 47
Skewer the facts: 4
Skewer the statistics: 6
Skewer the outcome: 3
Skewer the analysis: 2
Skewer the ratio: 2
Skewer the market: 1
Skewer the output: 1
Skewer the sample: 1
From Google Book Search (http://books.google.com/):
“I think that they have witnessed systematic efforts by employers to skewer the facts in their favor and to systematically eliminate people who, in fact….”—Title: Immigration Act of 1989
Publisher: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, U.S. G.P.O.
Author(s): United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and International Law
Publication Date: 1989
Page: 469
“In Oregon, too, we have a substantial seasonal influx of migrant workers that are largely male, so I think that serves to skewer the sample somewhat.”
Title: Hunger and Poverty Among Single Persons
Publisher: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, U.S. G.P.O.
Author(s): United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Hunger. Domestic Task Force
Publication Date: 1990
Page: 33
“As a result, both wait times and accountability are exceedingly top of mind in Quebec and can skewer the results of national polls.”—CBC News Online | June 23, 2006
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/reali … 60623.html
Last edited by Jim Dixon (2006-11-15 07:25:39)
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Ran across this again this week, self-reported by my granddaughter (a few earlier citations are included too):
It really shows how skewered their view is.
whether they [intelligence reports on WMD in Iraq] were skewered
That poll is skewered
After a lengthy legal battle waged by a London lawyer, it ruled that Bowen had breached BBC guidelines as to accuracy and had skewered information so as to portray Israel in an unfair light.
Ken L comments that: “To skewer is to attack or mock, so when an opinion or a mathematical distribution is ‘skewered’ rather than skewed, the asymmetry or partiality of the opinion or distribution is being held up as evidence of attack or tampering.” The following (which I found in my database entry) seems a bit different:
When something is discredited (because it is skewed) it is easy to see it as being skewered.
Ken seems to be saying that the opinion or distribution skewers the “attack or tampering” that caused the skewing. The second formulation suggests that (1) the opinion or distribution itself attacks (probably not tampers) the data, discrediting it. (2) The opinion of others (including perhaps ourselves) regarding the opinion or distribution is a skewering one, discrediting that opinion or distribution.
.
Who or what is skewering whom or what? I’m all mixed up at this point. But under any of these interpretations I think it is clear that we have a valid eggcorn.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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