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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Google counts on Nov 20, 2007:
17,900 “math whiz”
4280 “math wizard”
A “whiz” is someone who is unusually intelligent, and a “wizard” is a very clever or skillful person—in it’s broadest sense. The notion of a “math whiz” is close to being idiomatic in usage. “Math wizard” could certainly be correct in some contexts, but is otherwise an eggcorn of “math whiz.”
Examples
NPR : Solving an Old Math Problem Nets Award, Trouble
It includes a Harvard math wizard, a reclusive Russian genius, a $1 million prize, an award-winning journalist and The New Yorker magazine.
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6682439 – Similar pages
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor … Id=6682439
ThisWeek Community Newspapers – Westerville – Just thinking:...
Not everybody is a math wizard. Thursday, November 30, 2006. By: Margo Bartlett Margo Bartlett is a freelance writer and reporter. ...
www.thisweeknews.com/?story=sites/thisweeknews/1… – 38k – Similar pages
Any math wizard who can help me with this question.? – Yahoo…
“Any math wizard who can help me with this question.?” – Find the answer to this question and millions more on Yahoo!7 Answers.
answers.yahoo.com.au/question/index?qid=20071117… – 39k – Similar pages
http://answers.yahoo.com.au/question/in … 854AAp5een
Doing his bit to ease math wizard’s penury-Patna-Cities-The …
PATNA: Despite numerous promises made by a galaxy of political leaders to ensure his treatment, the one-time Nasa scientist and math wizard, Basisth Narayan …
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/386820.c… – 47k – Similar pages
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti … 386820.cms
Last edited by jorkel (2007-11-20 21:30:37)
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This is one of those instances where etymology complicates things. The derivation of “whiz” is unclear, but the OED thinks that the “skilful person” sense of the word is probably a shortening of “wizard. ”
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MW claims that “whiz kid” might derive from “Quiz kid”—a child member of a quiz show panel.
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I’m not sure that “math wizard” is mistaken usage for “math whiz.”
We do, though, have lots of web examples of “whizzard/whizard” for “wizard.” For example:
India film site: “Everyone knows that Amitabh Bachchan is a whizard at comedy.â€
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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For some time I have been confused about whether the acorn is “math whiz” or “math wiz” (short for wizard). There are a number of mentions of “math wiz” online, including a book entitled The Math Wiz and a “Math Methods Wiz” Facebook page. Other examples include:
The little math wiz answered as if he knew and understood square roots very well.
description of a video
A man became a math wiz after suffering brain injuries.
Washington Post article
Indian math wiz using hand gestures
blog title
Of course, “wiz” could easily just be a misspelling of “whiz”, but in some contexts it’s clear that it’s meant as a shortening of “wizard”, such as when both of those are used in the same article. The eggcornish meaning connection seems clear. The ngram indicates that “math whiz” predates the others—thus it’s the most likely candidate for acorn.
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As i recall, there is some argument about whether “wizard” is behind “wiz/whiz.” Some say yes, others point to a punning take on “quiz kid,” a between-the-wars radio show.
And then there is the question whether your dialect even makes a distinction between “wiz” and “whiz.” It all depends on where you are in the wine/whine merger. Perhaps you have seen the running joke on Family Guy about the merger?
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Wisened/wizened, as discussed recently, might be relevant here I think. Unfortunately I can’t provide the link.
And I must confess that until recently, this year even, I had assumed that the word quiz was cheerily derived from the much less cheery inquisition, which could easily, I imagined, be spelled with a Z in AmEnglish.
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