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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I stumbled across this one in an Amazon.com review for a kickstand:
“It’s a shame to have all strong parts which can hold 100 lbs and then decide on one weak piece which can only hold 50. A stand is only as strong as it’s weakest leak, of course.”
– Topeak FlashStand Portable Tune-Up StandThe ghits for “weakest leak” number around 250. Some are clearly puns dealing with pond repair and the like, but many seem to be true eggcorns.
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An Australian language buff noticed this:
http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/pubs/ozwords … _betty.htm
n MacbethMacduff expresses stunned disbelief when told about the murder of his wife and children by Macbeth:
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?
The phrase at (orin) one fell swoop has now been Betty Martined to ‘at (orin) one foul swoop’ because the meaning of fell has largely been lost. Fell originally meant ‘fierce, savage; cruel, ruthless; dreadful, terrible’ when applied to animals and men, or to their actions and their attributes. Thus in c.1400 in his The buke of John Maundeuille being the travels of Sir J. Mandeville knight 1322-56,the good knight quite rightly gives that mass infanticide Herod the Great the following hefty serve: ‘Herode was a full wikkid man and a fell’. And in 1688 Randle Holme in his The academy of armory, or a storehouse of armory and blazontells us that ‘The… Ban-dog’ [i.e. a mastiff kept constantly chained up because of its ferocity] ‘...is fierce, is fell, is stout, is strong’. A fell swoop, therefore, is a savage and murderous swoop, a thoroughly beastly swoop, a deadly swoop of the sort one might expect from a felon. (Fell and felon would seem to be closely related words.)
So much for a fell swoop. What would a foul swoop be? It is unlikely, I think, that users would have in mind a swoop that ‘causes disgust because it has an offensive smell or taste’, or a swoop that is ‘morally evil, filthy, or obscene’ (some of the commoner senses of the word). Perhaps foul in the sense ‘unfair, against the rules of a game’ is uppermost in users’ minds. A foul swoop would therefore be tantamount to a foul stroke and Macduff speaking today would probably complain that Macbeth’s slaughter of his wife and kids was most unfair and just not cricket!
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and another one—this is amazing documentation!
Also Australian
http://www2.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/d … 15845.shtm
From: Grant¹ 13/12/99 0:02:39
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15857
But what the hell is a foul swoop? I could understand the origins of a fowl swoop.
...
From: spud 13/12/99 0:07:26
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15861
possibly a fowl(bird) will scan for everything in its field of sight first, then go yes a little worm. instead of getting on the ground and going um food, where is it. So it gets it in “one fowl swoop”
From: Grant¹ 13/12/99 0:07:33
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15862
But what the hell is a foul swoop?
When something horrible and foul comes and affects every thing from out of the blue (swoops down)? I’m too tired for this. Night all.
From: spud 13/12/99 0:12:19
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15866
a foul swoop, when you are sick, you suddenly swoop down to the porcelien (spelling) and that can be pretty foul.
From: john H 13/12/99 0:17:52
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15867
I think that the correct phrase is “one fowl swoop”. Have you ever seen a Hawk spot a filed-mouse from 20ft above the ground and then swoop down to catch it? Kingfishers and some varieties of Eagle also swoop down from above to catch their prey in the water.
From: Mick 13/12/99 0:21:18
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15870
According to Roget’s thesaurus it’s actually “fell” swoop. (look under Violence Adverb)
Sorry but i can’t shed any light on where the expression comes from ‘though.
And i’ve got to say i find the idea of fowls swooping slightly foul! :-)
Cheers, Mick.
From: Sara 13/12/99 0:21:55
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15872
neither – the phrase is “one fell swoop”, originally from Macbeth: “What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop?”
“Fell” was used to mean savage, cruel, or ruthless, and may come from the same root as “felon”
From: Kothos 13/12/99 11:17:43
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15952
I thought the symbolism behind “one fell swoop” was regarding the felling of a tree with one swoop of the axe.
From: steve(primus) 13/12/99 11:32:38
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15972
“fell” means fierce, savage, cruel, ruthless or terrible; the “swoop” comes from the dive or pounce of a bird of prey extended to mean a hit, strike or blow. So “one fell swoop” beomes “one ruthless strike”.
From: Kothos 13/12/99 11:39:13
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15982
Oh okay, but it does also mean to cut down or knock down doesn’t it?
From: steve(primus) 13/12/99 11:43:59
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 15988
Yes it does, Kothos but although the words look the same they have different roots. Fell – ruthless comes from Latin via Middle English and has the same root as the word “felon”. Fell – to cut down comes from Old Teutonic and has the same root as “fall”.
From: Chris W (Avatar) 14/12/99 18:48:26
Subject: re: Steve is The Man post id: 16665
Merriam-Webster have this entry that covers the topic well.
Main Entry: fell
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English fel, from Middle French, from Old French—more at FELON
Date: 14th century
1 a : FIERCE, CRUEL, TERRIBLE b : SINISTER, MALEVOLENT c : very destructive : DEADLY
2 Scottish : SHARP, PUNGENT – fell·ness noun – fel·ly /’fel-lE/ adverb – at one fell swoop or in one fell swoop : all at once also : with a single concentrated effort
Last edited by TootsNYC (2007-11-20 11:50:36)
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TootsNYC must have added the above comments to the wrong thread. Looks like they pertain to the recent “one fell swoop” post.
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In my informal collection of verbal misfires, I have a 1990s spoonerism from my wife. Tired, and walking into a restaurant, she muttered something about a “leak wink” in the chain. A good one. I think it’s the only spoonerism I ever heard her utter.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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