Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I was thinking I might locate an eggcorn in which deal and ordeal are confused, but it seems that most linguistic uses derive from first principles rather than mangled idioms.
For instance…
1,540,000 “no big deal”—standard idiom
927 “no big ordeal”—might be eggcorns, or just might be cases of legitimate word use.
Examples
Life Outtacontext: Of Teeth and ClausMy kids sleep hard enough that the tooth fairy is no big ordeal. As for Santa, The IDEA of Santa is what I want to instill in my children. ...
outtacontext.com/life/archive/000371.shtml – 30k – Cached – Similar pages
Nature Forum: Long Glass: Big or Small? – photo.netCarrying a 600mm short distances is really no big ordeal and sticking one in a backpack to get to a specific destination, such as a mudflat, ...
photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000JVx – 39k – Cached – Similar pages
Comments on: The Big Misunderstanding It’s no big ordeal. They don’t act like they’re doing anything special and I don’t get any ideas that “Oh, he must like me”. I think that’s gentlemanliness …
www.therebelution.com/blog/2006/09/the- … ding/feed/ – 14k – Cached – Similar pages
What do you HATE about marriage? – Southern Maryland Community ForumsI think we’ve both agreed to fly away and have a destination wedding. No big ordeal, no fancy dress, and no hefty bar tab. ...
forums.somd.com/showthread.php?t=72168&page=5&pp=10 – 117k – Cached – Similar pages
Offline
I would also point out that I got just 5 hits for “What’s the big ordeal?”—which clearly derives from “What’s the big idea?” Certainly not that many utterances, but it seems to support my assertion that idioms occasionally act as a template for phrase structure.
Offline
Joe, there seems to be some leakage too between ‘ordeal’ and ‘ideal’, as well there might in maintaining high principles and acting in good faith in this troubled world (- already I’m deceiving myself by what may be no more than clumsy writing!)
The first believes that the world is becoming overpopulated which jeopardizes the issues of morality and high ordeals that one believes will be lost with …
www.ncmun.org/ncmun.org/NCMUN%20II/Econ … ouncil.htm – 116k – Supplemental Result – Cached
The Order of the Arrow is a Boy Scout National Honor Society, based in the high ordeals of camping. Members of the OA (Order of the Arrow) are there to be …
www.thinkandrew.net/2006_08_01_archive.html – 119k – Supplemental Result – Cached
But let this not blind you to what goodness there is : many people strive for high ordeals and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. ...
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=164480658 – 94k – Supplemental Result – Cached
Offline
in at least one of your examples, I think that’s a deliberate pun. And in another, i think it’s simply the phrase, “no big ordeals”—meaning exactly that. It’s quite common to say, “it was just one big ordeal,” meaning the ordeal was huge.
This would be hard to prove as a true eggcorn.
Offline