Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I think I’ve finally got one—drips and drabs for dribs and drabs.
What think ye?
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Works for me, but I’m afraid that Jorkel beat you to the punch:
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=1250
It’s possible that this is questionable, anyhow. The OED speculates that the noun “drib” arose out of the verb “drib,” and it gives this etymology for the latter:
app. an onomatopoeic formation arising out of DRIP or DROP, the modified consonant expressing a modification of the notion.
I like the idea of a modified consonant marking a modified concept. We should use that trick more often. A “trab” could be a trap that doesn’t catch anything. A “tob” could be the bottom of something. The possibilities are endless.
[Note: Before I edited this, I mistakenly had “definition” for “etymology” in the sentence introducing the OED quotation. Just in case I confused anybody….]
Last edited by patschwieterman (2007-11-15 12:12:02)
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when I searched on this site his post didn’t come up for some reason …
I’m not really sure I understand what “a modification of the notion” means exactly, especially because in the case of dribs, I’m not sure what the modification means …
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I think in this instance it means that a ‘drib’ is insufficiently liquid or fluid to actually ‘drip’, more sluggish and treacly perhaps, and the change in imagery is signalled by a change of consonant. There is no reason why the change shouldn’t be from ‘b’ to ‘p’ – someone fairly mute could have ‘the gift of the gap,’ or a highly fastidious criminal could ponder at length in a ‘smash and grap’ raid. This could get quite silly, couldn’t it?
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It’s no surprise that “dribs and drabs” would find itself modified over time. People seldom—if ever—use either “drib” or “drab” outside of that idiom, and if they did they’d have to refer back to the idiom for clarification. So, some who hear the idiom for the first time are liable to modify it.
Last edited by jorkel (2007-11-15 09:19:19)
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Here I go again, resurrecting a thread from long ago just to share an example of an eggcorn I stumbled upon today:
“sorry to be feeding this in drips and drabs…” (from an Internet chat-list)
I hope this is new enough to be of interest to some of you.
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Always glad to see your additions, Dixon. It’s fun bringing back these old threads.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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drib might well be a backformation from dribble (itself presumably a frequentative of drip with voicing of the p in the voiced environment). Not? I certainly have always understood it as being in some way or degree the same morpheme as drip .
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I’d have to say that the apparent etymological connection between “drib” and “drip” renders the eggcornicity of this one questionable at best, but it’s kind of amusing anyway.
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“Drib” has been around since the sixteenth century, says the OED. I think the two words have been separated long enough to file for divorce.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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