Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
‘Cacophony’ means harsh, discordant noise or sound, from kakos “bad, evil” + phone “voice.” Coughing makes a harsh and discordant noise, and it seems reasonable to suppose that those using a ‘cacoughany’ spelling may have made some association between the two and have entered, therefore, eggcorn territory. On the other hand, mis-spellings abound; there are many hits too for ‘cacoffiny,’ though mainly from heavy metal purveyors flirting with necrophilia.
... three full seconds of silence that followed before Tom Reynolds exploded with a cacoughany of laughter and saliva all over the rednecks’ swollen face. ...
www.svsapien.net/fiction/rants.html – 44k – Cached
... movie when the manifold finally gave way under their evil yet devastating efforts and my car roared into a cacoughany of puffing, snapping, screeching, ...
blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=4692419&blogID=313657808 – 25k – Cached
Everything from three massive macaws down to dozens of teeny finches make an unbelievable cacoughany. I wince, barely managing to not cover my ears. “Greys? ...
noteworthyinnola.com/index.php/2007/07/09/zulus-adoption-story/ – 39k – Cached
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I also like the way that “ca-cough” creates a pair of sounds as if the “ca” were a lead-in for greater emphasis on the second syllable. (Reminiscent of “ka-ching” as the sound of a cash register). Nice pickup Peter.
Last edited by jorkel (2007-11-17 08:54:03)
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Now posted: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/1104/cacoughany/ .
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