Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Okay, Ken, that’s just plain scary. I just logged on to post “stocking horse,” only to see that you just posted “stalking feet.” Nice to have you back!
Anyhow, a “stalking horse,” in the literal sense, is a horse—either real or artificial—that a hunter hides behind. And we’ll tap the OED for a definition of the figurative sense: “a person whose agency or participation in a proceeding is made use of to prevent its real design from being suspected.” The suggestion of fakery or inauthenticity is strong here, so for a speaker unaware of the phrase’s origins in hunting, a doll-like “stocking horse” might well make sense. Examples:
No really it’s great having a mocking talking stocking horse around.
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2 … libby.html
The offer accepted by the receiver or debtor will generally not be a “stocking horse bid” subject to “higher and better” bids in the manner of a typical sale conducted under section 363 of the U.S. Code (363 Sales).
http://www.blakes.com/english/publicati … rticle=266
And I think what you are trying to do here, really, is to address, as perhaps admittedly we had in the two races you suggest in your synopsis, a proscription of a stocking horse-type candidate, where someone at the last minute is handed 500, $600,000, whatever it is, and says, here, put your name on there, we still got to run, find somebody to run against somebody else.
http://rightoftexas.wordpress.com/2006/ … continues/
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