Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Google counts on Aug. 28, 2007
68,600 “not one whit”
13,500 “not one wit”
Analysis by Joe Krozel
“Whit” is defined as “the smallest part or particle imaginable.” It’s conceivable that those not familiar with this word might believe that idiomatic expressions containing “whit” actually pertain to “wit.” The plural form “wits” refers to sense, so an expression like “not one wit” might take the eggcorn meaning “not one bit of attention.”
Examples:
ALR Nov Dec 97 – Working in ESL: Perceptions and RealitiesThey are a business, pure and simple, and care not one wit, judging by their actions, about education, or the intellectual welfare of the students. ...
www.languagemagazine.com/interneteditio … fwe24.html – 19k – Cached – Similar pages
Foreign journalists say goodbye to Blair from Guardian Unlimited …It matters not one wit, that Blair brought properity to his country, or any of the other plusses he is given credit for. He confiscated any claim to …
blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/09/26/foreign_journalists_say_goodbye_to_blair.html – 77k – Cached – Similar pages
Pizza: the Italian import with all-American appealTens of millions of Americans worry not one wit about what the pizza police think, however, as they go through their fair share of the 100 acres of pizza …
www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/1997/june/pizza.php – 15k – Cached – Similar pages
Beatitudes’s Profile on The Huffington Post – The Huffington PostThen came Katrina and we were not one wit surprised. Now we are left to rebuild one brick, one person, one job, one book at a time. Lyn LeJeune …
www.huffingtonpost.com/users/profile/Beatitudes – 38k – Cached – Similar pages
Share a Car, Save the WorldThey have no way to address their CO2 emissions and they have not one wit of choice.” Her dream now is to see a world in which Zipcar and GoLoco provide …
www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/a … page_2.htm – 55k – Cached – Similar pages
Last edited by jorkel (2007-08-29 09:23:34)
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Well, Joe, I second your analysis, mainly because I, myself, am a recovering user of the very eggcorn!
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