Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
This is ,perhaps, influenced by the slightly old-fashioned use of ‘train’ to denote a sequence of events. Examples:
Often just a simple Hello can start a train reaction, and the next thing you know, you’re twenty minutes into a deep conversation.
ezinearticles.com/ezinepublisher/?id=415707
I think its sometimes a train reaction – one person starts being sick and others join in !
www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessages.jsp?fi … 4&start=50
They converted uranium-238 to plutonium-239 and it cause a train reaction where fission produced enough neutrons to trigger another and another …
bss.sfsu.edu/raquelrp/projects/uranium.ppt
Booklists, reading resources, and more ways that you and your family can start a train reaction in reading that lasts a lifetime …
polarexpressmovie.warnerbros.com/flash/pdf/official_rules.pdf
“The (second) truck rear ends the first truck and it set off a train reaction. www.mtexpress.com/vu_breaking_story.php?bid=3089
They are unaware of how a technology failure can cause a train reaction that hurts the business.
searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci1253374,00.html
I love my long nails usually, but I always have to cut them like every five weeks because as soon as one breaks, it triggers this train reaction …
www.artistdreams.net/forum/viewtopic.ph … 25f1492972
The petitioner asserts that if the diesel locomotive engines were to shut down, the brakes would lock up, causing the coal cars to create a train reaction
www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2000-06-29-00-16486
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The definition of “train” you cite is probably suitable for this eggcorn, but I’m going off on this tangent just for the sake of discussion…
The imagery for “train reaction” that first occurred to me is based on an explanation I once heard for a train derailment: Once the first car of a train has derailed, it sets the conditions for the next car to derail, and that car induces the derailment of the car after it, and so on. Indeed, this is the very essence of a chain reaction… ...in the form of a train reaction!
I would just add that eggcorns often originate with people who think in concrete terms: chains and trains in physical terms (rather than their abstract definitions). Clearly, both trains and chains consist of linked elements. But if one thinks about a chain, one might be at a loss for creating an image for a chain reaction. Where exactly would a reaction be associated with a chain? On the other hand, the image I presented for a train reaction provides a physical image. The only question is whether anyone else has this image in mind.
So, perhaps I’m back to a previous statement: both trains and chains consist of linked elements. And, that might be all that’s needed to justify this eggcorn.
Last edited by jorkel (2007-06-21 10:39:59)
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