Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Hello all,
I have just discovered this fascinating site.
I love language, and as an amateur fiction writer who posts stories on the internet, I am always on the look out for interesting words, and for quirks of language which may be used by certain of my characters. I am sure this forum will furnish me with lots of background information.
I suffer from severe headaches, and often find if I have written anything whilst in the midst of one I make typos and silly errors that only come to light when I re-read days later what I have put. It occurs to me that some of these would count as ‘eggcorns’.
The one which immediately comes to mind is when I caught myself having written:
“Sam realised there was too much at steak…” (instead of too much at stake)
Can you spell v e g e t a r i a n anyone?
Dependence on spell-checkers is fatal!
“Your talent is God’s gift to you. Wwhat you do with it is your gift back to God.” Leo Buscaglia
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Sorry to hear about your headaches. I think the kind of errors you speak of are simple misspellings or cognitive slipups. What is really needed to qualify as an eggcorn is new imagery which is actually believed by the utterer. So, the person—yourself or someone else—who miswrites “Sam realised there was too much at steak” does not actually believe that a steak is involved in. The word “stake” was actually intended at all times. And, hence, it would not be an eggcorn.
As an example of an eggcorn, consider “inclimate weather.” The actual expression is “inclement weather.” However, the person who uttered the former may truly believe that the weather he speaks of is atypical for the climate he lives in. Hence, he creates a new context which makes sense (regardless of the meaning of the original expression).
But don’t get discouraged. There is a lot of subtlety with eggcorns, and we often have discussions on this very forum about what constitutes an eggcorn versus a malapropism versus eye dialect versus a misspelling versus various other categories.
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Thanks jorkel
I’m not discouraged.
Like I said, I’m fascinated by language, by the origins and meanings of words, by the way they evolve over time into slang or take on regional variations (here in Bedford a lot of locals I’ve met say ‘windowscreen’ instead of ‘windscreen’ on their cars for example).
Hmm, she thinks, daring to try again.
Windscreen is a screen for protection against the wind – windowscreen is not a ‘real’ word as such, but could be a transparent screen that can be seen through ‘like a window’. Does that count as quote ‘a new context which makes sense (etc)’ unquote?
It is heartening that there are so many people who also take such an interest in the myriad wonders of words.
I think I am going to like it here!
“Your talent is God’s gift to you. Wwhat you do with it is your gift back to God.” Leo Buscaglia
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Your example of windscreen/windowscreen is indeed an eggcorn. Nicely done! (I suppose the American English equivalent would be windshield/windowshield.)
It also reminds me a little of another already-documented eggcorn; Some have mistaken the term “Wind chill factor” to be “windshield factor”—as if it had something to do with the frosting over of the windshield in cold weather! (Clearly your eggcorn is distinct from this one, but I thought you might find it amusing).
By the way, for future reference: it helps to mention the eggcorn in the title of your post for easier retrieval by others.
Last edited by jorkel (2007-03-30 02:31:29)
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Thanks again jorkel.
Interesting indeed about the wind chill factor.
I’ll try to remember about the thread headings.
“Your talent is God’s gift to you. Wwhat you do with it is your gift back to God.” Leo Buscaglia
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