Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Spotted on a Doctor Who forum recently. “Without being too maudling about it…”
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This looks like a bit of hyper-correction – many English-speakers sound the endings of words ending in ‘ing’ as ‘in’, eg huntin’ and shootin’. Those who aspire to improve their spoken English sometimes make the mistake of assuming that all words ending with the ‘in’ sound are really ‘ings’; I have heard a bacon sandwich referred to as a ‘baking’ sandwich, and curtains referred to as ‘curtings’.
If this new variant made some sort of sense it might be an eggcorn but, unfortunately, your example doesn’t have any alternative meaning, so it isn’t. It’s interesting though.
Incidentally, i’ve just looked up ‘curtings’ on Google and found 2,200 citations ranging from recent usage…
and get awfully hot even with curtings drawn. So far the only stuff that seems to be within my price range is for car windows. Anyone tried anything …
www-gatago.com/uk/rec/sheds/23876476.html –
to this…
3d p. yd. ffor thread silke tapes & rings ffor ye making & putting up 2 window Curtings & ther vail”n of crimson taffity lynd wt shallon ffor ye making …
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0007-6287(199308)135%3A1085%3C515%3AAFUIEF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S
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Peter Forster wrote:
...your example doesn’t have any alternative meaning …
Reginald Maudling was a fairly prominent British politician of the 60s and 70s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Maudling
He’s also notable for having been featured in a Monty Python sketch:
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I remember ‘Reggie’ well and with an appropriate lack of affection; I lived in one of the high-rise slums he and other corrupt local and national politicians foisted upon a public which deserved better. I would happily support a verb, ‘maudling’, provided it meant to betray public confidence/feather one’s own nest/systematically swindle/etc, but so far Maudling has not joined the ranks of Quisling and Boycott and is therefore highly unlikely to be the alternative meaning Cantabrigian seems to imagine.
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I wasn’t intending to imply any Maudling-related content in the example that tomsalinsky gives. I was just (perhaps overliterally) questioning the assertion that there was no alternative meaning, and also guessing that many readers might not have heard of Reggie (let alone his naughty bits).
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Apologies, Cantabrigian – I fear you must have inadvertently touched a nerve I didn’t realise I had. I shall try much harder to respond with equanimity should anyone have occasion to mention the M-word, T Dan Smith or, especially, Andy Cunningham.
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