Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I don’t know the history of these words, so I can’t decide which is an eggcorn, but I suspect one of them is. Maybe someone with access to the OED can enlighten me.
The Merriam-Webster site (www.webster.com/dictionary) says:
Outcast:
1 : one that is cast out or refused acceptance (as by society) : PARIAH
Outcaste:
1 : one who has been ejected from a Hindu caste for violation of its customs or rules
2 : one who has no caste
…which isn’t very helpful. The meanings are so similar that it doesn’t seem practical to try to keep them separate. However, they do suggest different imagery.
Some people do seem to use them interchangeably, or get them confused.
I encountered this problem when I was researching a song written by Tom Russell. According to www.allmusic.com, the song title is spelled THE OUTCAST on Russell’s album “The Man from God Knows Where,†released in 1999, but the same song is called THE OUTCASTE on another Russell album, “The Wounded Heart of America,†2007.
Of course, music publishers are notorious for spelling errors, so I can’t be sure the change was deliberate.
You can see lyrics of the song at http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=90375#1712282
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Very curious situation. Is it possible that these two words might have originated independently of one another—and still have very close meaning?
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It does look like these two arose independently. “Outcast” first appears in the late 14th century acc. to the OED. “Outcaste” appears in the 1830s, and the earliest uses do seem to apply to situations where a formal “caste” was involved. The OED’s later citations show the term’s meaning becoming more general and merging a bit with “outcast.”
All of that doesn’t prove, however, that “outcast” didn’t influence the original form of “out-caste.” The OED just doesn’t give enough info to say anything more certain.
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