Eggcorn Forum

This is just for fun, from http://www.nysun.com/comments/37971 (the comment is in response to this article, Conveying Emphasis, about the misuse of quotation marks: http://www.nysun.com/article/61711

I think the usage itself might qualify as an eggcorn, but it is by no means widespread. The incident below is the only one I could find. I think the user might have thought it was named after the creator of the dessert, along the lines of crepes suzette, caesar salad, Waldorf salad, etc.

From the site listed above, in a posting titled “Menu French”:

This non-standard use of quotation marks reminds me of the consistent use of something like French on Midwestern menus. I’ve long been accustomed to the phrase “with aujus,” for example, and to the vagaries of “vichyssoise,” whether printed or pronounced. It never occurs to me to think an entree would be a first course.

A new one got sprung on me recently at a restaurant in Whitehall, Michigan.

The menu listed “elmo” for the reasonable price of $1.50. I asked the waitress what it was.

“You’re kidding,” she said. I assured her I wasn’t kidding.

“You know, like when you want your pie ‘elmo’? It’s really ice cream, but we call it elmo in restaurants.”

Last edited by JonW719 (2007-09-24 12:17:07)