Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
Sometimes there are eggcorns right under your nose and you just can’t see them. My wife (cold slaw) and I (coleslaw) have been arguing about this one for years. I can’t get her to see the light. It wasn’t until today that I realised that this was an eggcorn.
Obviously, I’m correct about the spelling.
“Cole slaw (cold slaw) got it’s name from the Dutch ‘kool sla’ – ‘kool’ is cabbage and ‘sla’ is salad – meaning simply, cabbage salad. In English, that became ‘cole slaw’ and eventually ‘cold slaw’. The original Dutch ‘kool sla’ was most likely served hot.” http://www.foodreference.com/html/fcoleslaw.html
Results of about 1,620,000 for coleslaw
Results of about 1,020,000 for cole slaw
Results of about 19,800 for cold slaw
Results of about 519 for coldslaw
So that means that about 7% of the hits use “cold” instead of “cole”. A fair number of people.
I also paired the “cold” variations up with UK, Britain and Australia to see if the trend was trans-oceanic. It is. Although it’s far more prevalent in the US.
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Arg! You beat me to it! Months ago I posted Scalp potatoes, Rice peeloff, and Stuff peppers—and I had just written a note to myself to add Cold slaw! ...Even so, your eggcorn is nicely presented.
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