Eggcorn Forum

I think this is questionable and more likely a pail than an eggcorn.

I suspect that most people don’t understand the original, “holy smokes,” except as a unitary exclamation. Without knowledge of the origin of the original phrase, “wholy smokes” is an equally attractive alternative.

I found it in the wild at: http://marcusfoster.com/blog/category/google/

“While generally enthusiastic about new products, I am not that easily wowed. However, I just watched this video preview of Scrybe, a new kind of online organiser and wholy smokes, I am pretty impressed.”

I got 788 Google hits for “wholy smokes,” although some are references to a tobacco store. many are genuine examples:

wholy smokes what a night!
Wholy smokes that is exactly what I did.
i wouldnt pay 60k for this car. wholy smokes!!!!!! i can get a s500 for that much.
wholy smokes you guys like to wreck them don’t you

I got 2,930 hits for “wholly smokes” but most seem to be proper nouns.

It appears that the eggcorn (or pail) version appears mainly as “wholy.”

It’s interesting (but probably fruitless) to speculate on why “wholy” is more common than “wholly.” It may be because the word “holy” from the orignal version is retained.

Bob