Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Email re dress code:
Inappropriate dress includes thin strap tank shirts that intentionally show bra straps, and or too much arm pit. No mid drifts, or other intentional revealing apparel.
mid rift, which is already reported, is obviously related. Here I for one get the picture of pants and top drifting away from each other in the midsection.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Nice variant David. I thought the eggcorn discussed previously was “mid drift”, but you’re right, it was reported as “mid rift.”...
Midrift instead of midriff (common in the wild) by calamityjane01 Contribute! 1 2006-10-05 12:16:51 by Peter Forster
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Jorkel, you may have been thinking of this post, which is from the old Database comments section:
# 665 Commentary by Lara Hopkins , 2005/09/27 at 3:48 am
“Mid-drift top†for “midriff topâ€.
I spotted this on a mailing list just now. Maybe the speaker is imagining the hem to be progressively drifting upwards on the torso. “Midriff†in isolation is more or less obsolete nowadays.
Google confirms nearly 6000 examples, including a number of dress code handbooks:
“Thongs, “baggy†pants, mid-drift tops, “spaghetti strap topsâ€, etc. are not considered safe for schoolâ€
www.cupertino.k12.ca.us/S…
“please forgo any mid-drift tops, tennis shoes, torn jeans, etc.â€
www.ciponline.org/handboo…
#3 NO halter, tank or mid-drift tops.â€
www.nashville-sheriff.net…
“Matching bra or mid-drift tops are available, but are VERY small. â€
64.87.26.49/miniskirts/le…
For some reason, I can’t get the quotation formatting to work correctly. Those last two citations are part of Lara’s original post.
I do like David’s addition of plate tectonic imagery to the mix.
Though we often talk here on the forum about not making a big deal about eggcorns as mistakes, I am just a bit concerned that one of the examples above is from a school district here in Northern California. Official school websites need to lead by example, and should employ a pretty high standard of proofreading.
Last edited by patschwieterman (2007-10-13 12:25:15)
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Schools no doubt should lead by example, but the mood is subjunctive or optative rather than indicative. I have, documented, an impromptu mission statement uttered at a PTA meeting by the principal of a public school in the US:
“The purpose of the aim of our goal is to learn each student to think for theirself.”
Independence of thought regarding grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc., is no doubt encompassed within this noble objective.
—David Tuggy
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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