Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I don’t know whether this counts as an eggcorn, or just a one-off slip of the tongue. Someone was telling me about the front seats in his motorhome, which have armrests and are usually known as “captain’s seats”. They also swivel through 180 degrees so that you can sit facing the living area of the van. He called them “capstan seats”, which has a certain logic to it as capstans do swivel, and you can refer to a capstan lathe etc. Has anyone heard this one? I couldn’t find any references on google.
Richard.
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Usually an eggcorn involves the replacement of a less familiar word with a more familiar one. This example seems to go the other direction. But, it sounds like the utterer knew what a capstan is, and he certainly has the imagery working in his favor. Eggcorn? Could be.
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