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#1 2007-10-08 03:17:24

wordmaniac
Member
From: OH-HI-OH
Registered: 2007-10-08
Posts: 2

'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

ep·i·taph (Ä›p’Ä­-tāf’)
n.

1. An inscription on a tombstone in memory of the one buried there. 2. A brief literary piece commemorating a deceased person.——
ep·i·thet (Ä›p’É™-thÄ›t’)
n. 2. An abusive or contemptuous word or phrase.
———————————————————————————-
I did a search for this one….thought for sure someone would have already posted it. Don’t have a specific occurrence to cite,
mainly because I’ve never seen it in print, only in spoken
form. I’ve heard this one more times than I can count
and it’s one of my pet peas[oops…PEEVES].

ex. “He hurled all sorts of foul epitaphs at him.”

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#2 2007-10-08 10:39:43

JonW719
Eggcornista
From: Colorado
Registered: 2007-09-05
Posts: 285

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

This one is pretty common, though I’m not entirely sure it’s an eggcorn (other, more experienced forum folk can weigh in). I looked up “racial epitaphs,” and it’s pretty rampant! Both are descriptions of someone, though one is usually on a gravestone, of course. I think part of the problem is that “epithet” is sort of a hard word to say. It sounds wrong to our ears and feels wrong in our mouths, as if there should be another syllable (epithetic?). Here are some examples of “racial epitaphs”:

Plastic: One Man’s Cheesesteak Is Another’s Cultural, Ethnic SlamBut on the other hand, if you replace the name with other racial epitaphs, say “Spic’s” for example, it demonstrates to me how some would find this …
www.plastic.com/comments.html;sid=04/01 … 2991;cid=7 – 46k – Cached – Similar pages

Blatant Racial Epitaph — Blogs, Pictures, and more on WordPressIn a strange story a director of a University Culture Center feels the license plate N666R contains a “blatant racial epitaph”. If the “blatant racial …
wordpress.com/tag/blatant-racial-epitaph/ – 10k – Cached – Similar pages

NOLA.com: Sound Off ForumOr “racial epitaphs”. by antistoopid, 9/30/07 22:01 ET Re: Well, its reading time by Antny, 9/30/07. Or signing up to the Backline with his AOL acount. ...
www.nola.com/forums/soundoff/index.ssf?artid=997768 – 6k – Cached – Similar pages

“racial epitaphs” (a non-controversial comment) – SpartanTailgate …sorry to go off topic—i’m trying really hard to stay away from OT. but, i just read in a legal brief that a crowd of people were yelling racial.
www.spartantailgate.com/.../135275-raci … mment.html – 51k – Cached – Similar pages

Attn: Bozak – Jena 6 – rec.music.hip-hop | Google Groupsthe witnesses said that the white kid was hurling racial epitaphs at the black students before the fight happened. Dude was trying to …
groups.google.com/group/rec.music.hip-hop/browse_thread/thread/6d9b09125cc0c9b2/a69a3bcfc0a728d6?lnk=raot – 279k – Cached – Similar pages

Racial Profiling Within the U.S. Government – The Education ForumRacial Profiling Within the U.S. Government. Options V …. as hate crimes—even with those committing the crimes use racial epitaphs when they commit them. ...
educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=7597 – 194k – Cached – Similar pages

Wonderland or Not – conceptually fragile and left of most lines …... fond of hurling racial epitaphs at them as they leave, or if you hang with people who do, then you are not of good character and not beyond reproach. ...
wonderlandornot.net/2006/05/07/friends-of-duke-lacrossenot-hereno-poetry-either/ – 72k – Cached – Similar pages

Mellencamp’s ‘Jena’22 years in prison for helping (mildly) beat up a white kid taunting him with racial epitaphs in a very volatile context? ...
www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow?pid=239242 – 45k – Cached – Similar pages

[PDF] Water and Oil, Military and Civilian: Assimilation and the Making …File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
The use of racial epitaphs in the Army in and by itself is not against regulations (p. 52-53, 63-65). Speakers of racial epitaphs are punished only if their …
www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/ejrot/vol5_1/cheng.pdf – Similar pages

[PDF] A m e ricanFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
spewing racial epitaphs.They denounced integration, bus-. ing, and announced their intention to preserve their way of. life. Twenty-first century political …
www.sefatl.org/pdf/Right%20Side_107to116_McMillan.pdf – Similar pages


Feeling quite combobulated.

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#3 2007-10-09 07:48:30

gilibug
Member
Registered: 2006-03-03
Posts: 43

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

Looks to me like a classic eggcorn, good find.

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#4 2007-10-09 12:35:49

JonW719
Eggcornista
From: Colorado
Registered: 2007-09-05
Posts: 285

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

A search for “hurling epitaphs” also brings up tons of (mis)uses. This one seems pretty mainstream.


Feeling quite combobulated.

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#5 2007-10-09 12:58:51

TootsNYC
Eggcornista
Registered: 2007-06-19
Posts: 263

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

I think this isn’t so much an image switch as a simple word switch.

And it’s the IMAGE switch that makes something a true eggcorn. That they understand what imagery they are using, and are doing it on purpose. They have chosen an ALTERNATE imagery.

I think this is just a case of people using a similar-sounding, similar-looking, similarly little-used big word in the wrong place.

Of course, maybe they are thinking of “sayings about people after they’re dead” as being the ultimate insult—but I doubt it.

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#6 2007-10-10 01:32:02

gilibug
Member
Registered: 2006-03-03
Posts: 43

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

I think Toots raises a very valid point, but I still think Wordmaniac is onto something.

I can testify that I tend to confuse epitaphs, epithets and epigrams, sort of a three way switch. I had to look in the dictionary just now to set myself straight. What I had before was the general idea that they’re all short phrases describing someone, usually in a punchy or witty way, whether disparagingly (epithets) posthumously (epitaphs) or poetically (epigrams). So maybe it’s not a case of an incorrect but clear image replacing a correct but clear image, but there’s still some kind of image displacement going on: a murky, mushy sort of blend of images…

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#7 2007-10-10 10:12:25

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

I think this hasn’t been posted before because it’s not an eggcorn (and I would have posted it a long time ago if I had thought otherwise).

When someone says something like “hurling racial epitaphs” they don’t really know what an epitaph is. For this to be an eggcorn, the utterer must know what an epitaph is, and must have a consistent imagery connected to it. How exactly would a deceased person work into this imagery?

Perhaps it’s a malapropism, but it certainly is not an eggcorn.

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#8 2007-10-10 11:54:50

nilep
Eggcornista
Registered: 2007-03-21
Posts: 291

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

jorkel wrote:

Perhaps it’s a malapropism, but it certainly is not an eggcorn.

Indeed, it’s a classic malapropism; it was uttered by Sheridan’s Miss Malaprop herself.

“If I reprehend any thing in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue and a nice derangement of epitaphs!” The Rivals, Act 3 scene 3

Of course, Miss Malaprop probably intended “epigrams” rather than “epithets.” Still, I’m with jorkel: It’s a malaprop, not an eggcorn.

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#9 2007-10-12 11:46:56

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1222

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

Because I constantly hear ‘th’ sounded as an ‘f’ in many BrEnglish dialects I had to check both of these words in their opposing guises and found 36 ghits for ‘epifet’ and 821 for ‘epitath’; it’s a real shame I can persuade neither of them to supply any alternative imagery.
While we’re on the epi prefix, I’d like to submit ‘epitomb’ for ‘epitome’; I know it’s only a malapropism but it seems to be related to ‘epitaph’, and in the second example ‘epitomb’ could be construed as ‘epitome’ which seems to read as ‘big book’, or epic tome…

‘The Russian Chapel’ built just off the road some 4500 feet up is an epitomb to 400 or so workers who were wiped out in an avalanche when constructing it. ...
blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=29131162 – 50k – Cached

They could even be slating reviews of modern mass market tosh, such as that deplorable epitomb “The De-Vinci Code” by that hack Darren Brown. ...
forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewThread&entryID=21600023&groupID=102962766… – 31k – Cached

I didn’t mean to insult you , I just wanted to point out that your religion is the epitomb of evil. quote from speach The emperor, after having expressed …
ottawaboy.blogspot.com/2006/09/pope-meant-no-offence-to-islam.html – 16k – Cached

From the POV of the orginal poster, Helo is one of the greatest heros and an epitomb of goodness, regardless of the fact that Sharon is a Cylon. ...
parablemania.ektopos.com/archives/2005/10/moral_luck_and.html – 46k – Cached

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#10 2015-06-23 10:35:17

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

The epitomb of epitome, heard this morning on the radio.

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#11 2015-06-24 11:07:14

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

Nice. I’m wondering, though, how we know whether the speaker is saying “epitomb” or just butchering the pronunciation of “epitome?”

It is curious that “epitome” has a final “e” rather than a final “y.” In English, almost every modern word that describes a process and that is derived from the Greek word for “cut” ends with ”-tomy.” Appendectomy, colostomy, anatomy, etc. Even “epitome” was betimes spelled “epitomy.” One wonders if there is some academic infusion of the French “epitome” working behind the scenes.

Speaking of French, how does one say “epitome” in French? This web site suggests that French allows the accent to migrate to the last syllable. If this is the case, then the French last-syllable pronunciation might underlie the English speech error.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#12 2015-06-24 12:06:40

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

It seems to me that the only way to get to epitomb from epitome is through mispronunciations of the sort caught yesterday on the radio. The mispronunciations must surely come from things you knew only from reading but mispronounced in your mind, which is another thread relevant to this entry. I didn’t know that epitome had a French equivalent. It’s épitomé though, so less room for interpretation. That spelling makes it hard to understand where the second pronunciation on that website comes from, Kem. I don’t have my petit Robert to hand to check that spelling though.

The b may also be superstitious, to borrow once again Peter’s memorable explanation. That would explain the creepy resonances.

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#13 2015-06-24 19:29:51

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: 'epitaphs' for 'epithets'

Hearing tomb for tome is directly evident in the hundred or more hits for “a tomb of a book”. Maybe a connection to a grave marker, or the dread of embarking upon it? Or just rhyming it with comb.

Light reading: This tomb of a book is the handbook on becoming an expert in any skill.

Learn Windows PowerShell: It’s not a tombstone of a book so immediately you feel that for once you might actually finish it.

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