Eggcorn Forum

Discussions about eggcorns and related topics

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to if you wish to register.

The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.

Thanks for your understanding.

Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2006-03-04 01:03:59

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

"bold-legged" for "bow-legged"

Those who read my post on “pop-bellied” will realize that I’m double-dipping with this one. In one of my examples for that entry (given as the first citation below), I found another eggcorn I’d never seen before: “bold-legged.” This one gets over 4000 Google hits. Huh. Sometimes pursuing eggcorns makes my mother tongue seem like a foreign language.

I would guess that the “boldness” of this condition has to do with the way that it draws attention to itself when a bow-legged person is standing. Examples:

Personally for example I don’t care if they are overweight , flat breasted , pop bellied and bold legged , as long as they have a cute face , its an extra weakness that has also tended to keep me single .
http://www.dalet.addr.com/bio/mindrot.htm

JESSICA SIMPSON: She’s like bold-legged, the way she sits.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bow-legged. What did you call it?
JESSICA SIMPSON: I said bold.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ … tn.01.html

Q.4143 Hello Good Health.com: Can riding horses cause bold-legs? Or do people that have ridden horses for a long time become bold-legged?
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:4iG … =clnk&cd=5

Mami, I put my best foot forward though it’s kinda awkward
Cuz ya pigeon-toed and bold-legged.
But you ain’t too proud to beg.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jarule/caughtup.html

I’m not sure exactly what they’re saying, but I was told once that it means something along the lines of “By the head of your bold-legged father”.
http://brittney.typepad.com/sparkwood_2 … mom.html

Last edited by patschwieterman (2006-03-04 01:10:41)

Offline

 

#2 2018-03-23 03:29:33

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

Re: "bold-legged" for "bow-legged"

If ‘bold-legged’ is an eggcorn, its likely acorn is an eggcorn too. I refer to bowl-legged, where the imagery clearly reflects the curve of the leg.

Bowl legged riders. I joined a local bike club and been on 3 group rides. I noticed that many of the veterans have what appears to be bowl legs.

He was a smallish simian man, bowl legged and hirsute.

Anyone have any kids that are or have been bowl legged? When DS (dear son) started walking he was bowl legged i took him to his doc & specialist and they both told me not to worry about it that he’ll grow out of it.

Hmm – it appears to be, or have been, standard for some AmEnglish speakers, and even has an entry in the 1913 Webster’s.

Then of course there has to be the inevitable…

So my son is 6 months old and my MIL thinks that every time he stands up he gets bowel legged.

The bow in ‘bow-legged’ can be pronounced to rhyme with ‘now’, ‘cow’ etc, leading to further eggcornish interpretations.

Pair of jeans for sale with button fly.they are 28 waist and they are bough legged and inside leg is roughly 30 inches.Hardly worn in excellent condition. They look a strange shape on photos,but they fall nice when on.

Offline

 

#3 2018-03-23 04:09:10

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

Re: "bold-legged" for "bow-legged"

And, of course…

He wasn’t a big man, short and bo-legged, and rough as a cob, but he wasn’t mean.
description of Gabby Hayes

I am taking two weeks off work and the joke is that I am going to come back bo-legged and knocked up…
matrimonial discussion

The leather of the shoe is beautiful, buckle is also beautiful however the shaft of the boot is the larger end. Also, I am bo-legged and didn’t realize the angled curvature of the shaft would really amplify my bo-legged-ness.
product review

His leg looks real bo legged and he is almost walking on the side of his foot.
Q&A site

...though offhand I can’t imagine an eggcornish meaning-connection.

Offline

 

#4 2018-03-23 05:55:10

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

Re: "bold-legged" for "bow-legged"

Such pretty limbs, not just bandy but bonny too!

She noticed that he was slightly beau-legged and had a male switch about his walk.

You can also see on the picture above that I’m “bowl-legged” or “Beau-Legged” or something like that.

Offline

 

#5 2018-03-23 07:40:51

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

Re: "bold-legged" for "bow-legged"

Beau-legged, heh heh. The origin of beau legs on your beau is surely due to bone plasticity, producing those wishbone legs.

Juveniles develop rickets; adults develop osteomalacia! You look bone-legged because the bone is bended too much under the weight of standing up!
anatomy notes

In the Gentleman’s Magazine, new series, for March, 1834, there is figures a sheet of “Coins supposed to be Gaulish,” identical in general with the British coins in the W.A., as they contain the bone-legged horse, human eye, wheel face, and the curious twisted lines for hair.
https://books.google.ca/books?id=CspCAA … 22&f=false

I’m a bone-legged chicken I’m a knock-kneed sparrow
folksongs

I was working from screenshots of her base in game model. I didn’t even notice the bone legged-ness till you pointed it out.
action figure modelling

She said Sara was more bone-legged than average (but all babies are bone-legged) and that is why it is more noticeable but her hips are fine.
European mum

Still active at 87, never a leading man and early on growing into a grizzled, tough, bone-legged codger
http://www.classicfilmfreak.com/2008/11/24/them-1954/

Offline

 

#6 2018-03-23 12:12:54

yanogator
Eggcornista
From: Ohio
Registered: 2007-06-07
Posts: 237

Re: "bold-legged" for "bow-legged"

I picture “bowel-legged” as “standing as if you have a full diaper”. :)


“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin

Offline

 

#7 2018-03-27 16:17:06

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

Re: "bold-legged" for "bow-legged"

The keeper here, I would say, though not the funniest, is “bowl-legged.” A common switch for bow-legged.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

Offline

 

Board footer

Powered by PunBB
PunBB is © 2002–2005 Rickard Andersson
Individual posters retain the copyright to their posts.

RSS feeds: active topicsall new posts