Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Immersion in deep water while wearing a millstone around the neck is obviously going to be fatal; attached in a similar manner to a milestone your chances of survival are no better; is this an eggcorn or simply another spelling error?
I daresay there are many users of English who have seen neither a millstone nor a milestone (and possibly have never even heard of the latter in this age of compulsory metrification), and yet I can’t help but see attributes of a milestone in some of the millstones into which people voluntarily pop their heads, and sometimes they seem to see the same.
More seriously, we also have ‘developmental millstones’ (32ghits) and a solitary ‘childhood millstone’ (1 ghit) which can be so horribly apt for far too many of us, whether deliberate or not…
Language evolves in my living room. “I guess,” Laurie conceded, “I am a landmine for that kind of thing. Well, another milestone around my neck.” ...
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m128 … i_20443618 – 33k – Cached
I get annoyed when people are asking if they have BPD coz like you when i got it the world made more sense now it is just a milestone round my neck Mrs Tree …
www.mentalhealth-world.org.uk/forums/in … opic=10715 – 107k – Supplemental Result – Cached
Like a milestone around his neck, she holds him back as a wife that must be supported. He and his impecunious career would be better off if they “bust-up. ...
www.filmsite.org/palm.html – 23k – Cached
... slither of mushy leaves into a saucepan to reheat them and only strengthen their flavor is a childhood millstone inflicted by many well-meaning parents. ...
www.geocities.com/ellenk2site/gardening/trembling.html – 11k – Supplemental Result – Cached
... by immigrants from Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands permeated the South, becoming “a developmental millstone for both blacks and whites. ...
www.theweekmagazine.com/reviews/article … ?EntID=264 – 49k – Cached
Last edited by Peter Forster (2007-03-25 13:31:32)
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Great find, Peter. This reminded me that I once heard someone say, “It’s a pelican around my neck!” I was only able to find one example on the Net, however:
Israel’s grasp on the occupied territories is a pelican around its neck.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dav … _invi.html
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patschwieterman wrote:
Great find, Peter. This reminded me that I once heard someone say, “It’s a pelican around my neck” I was only able to find one example on the Net, however:
Israel’s grasp on the occupied territories is a pelican around its neck.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dav … _invi.html
I’m drawing a blank… what’s the “real” saying?
(hmmm… could there be an eggcorn of “drawing a blank?”)
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Oops. Sorry, Craig—the target phrase is “albatross around one’s neck.”
Not an eggcorn, of course, since there’s no resemblance between the sounds of “albatross” and “pelican.” But I like the conceptual substitution of one big, ungainly seabird for another.
(Hey, I wonder whether anyone’s ever looked for “ungamely” for “ungainly.”)
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I was just watching Preston Sturges’s 1942 movie, The Palm Beach Story. “Milestone around your neck” for “millstone around your neck” is a pun at the beginning of the movie. Claudette Colbert uses the phrase, Joel McCrea corrects her.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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How to look ungamely before taking a swing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/weh/2745042271/
He looks ungamely and I really can’t see him cutting it in the Prem.
UK Football
It’s pretty obvious from their lack of stamina (Tumilty) , ungamely running style (Thomson, Richmond , Brines) or lack of resembling an athlete (Collum , the rest).
Celtic football
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A hint, a confirmation, a great eggcorn.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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I loved the pelican around the neck. If you can think it was a pelican, what other weighty neck pieces might you imagine?
I’d say move to Ky, but good mercy man, you’re bad luck. First a coal mine, then a highway, then a nuke dump. You’d be like an albacore around our neck. On the other hand, you do build with stone and stone cutters are ok with me.
Homesteading forum
I need a new person to join games with. Last week I joined Elman’s game and promptly died 3 times so he had to switch to arcade just so we could get through the level. I am the albacore around the neck.
Board
Those were difficult to spot among all the references to an intentional malaprop from “The Sopranos”.
“IT’S LIKE AN ALCATRAZ AROUND MY NECK” – Boston mayor Menino on the shortage of city parking spaces
Famous quotes
Throughout history, the cab-rank principle has been the unspoken cormorant around the neck of barristers the world over.
Lawmanship
“Wait, Canada has never won a gold medal when the Olympics have been in Canada?—nm”. it’s like the seagull around everybody’s neck here
Board
After I left the company I have had nothing but good luck and fortune.It’s almost as if A.V.I. was the dead seagull around my neck
Job reviews
Ha! And everyone thought Mercury was a dead goose hanging around Ford’s neck (it still might be).
Car forum
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