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Chris -- 2018-04-11
From NYU Graduate School of Business Administration placement office, c. 1981: There was a posting for a position in the “acid-base lending” department of a financial services firm. Unfortunately, I can no longer remember the exact job description or the firm involved. When I asked the placement office clerk whether a knowledge of chemistry was required for this position, she had no idea what I was talking about.
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Is there a play on words here that I am missing?
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Maybe the intended term was ‘asset-based lending.’ Just a guess.
Last edited by klakritz (2007-11-12 21:14:37)
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It’s not a play on words, just ignorance. The correct term was, as klakritz suggested, “asset-based lending.”
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I found a single ghit for this. It’s part of an interview, so the reshaping was likely performed by the transcriber rather than the interviewee:
I started out in a specialized field called acid-based lending and I was an auditor and my base compensation was $50,000 a year.
http://media.www.gsusignal.com/media/st … 0842.shtml
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I was thinking that both examples might be transcription based …perhaps even a spontaneous creation like jazz music or a Jackson Pollock. So if the transcriber is a human, then it can still be an eggcorn albeit with little reflection about the imagery beyond the fact that the two words “acid-base” make a logical pair.
Last edited by jorkel (2007-11-13 13:46:47)
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