Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I’ve noticed what I believe is a perfect eggcorn: “porthole” misinterpreted as “portal”
Porthole, from dicitonary.com:
1. a round, windowlike opening with a hinged, watertight glass cover in the side of a vessel for admitting air and light.
2. an opening in a wall, door, etc., as one through which to shoot.
—http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/porthole
Portal, from dictionary.com:
a door, gate, or entrance, esp. one of imposing appearance, as to a palace.Some examples found in the wild:
“As I look out the small portal window I realize…”
—http://breedloveproject.blogspot.com/20 … dow-i.html
“a circular chrome metallic portal window” – image is clearly a porthole
—http://www.bigstockphoto.com/photo/view/2263375
“The little round window by the door seems oddly placed to me. It’s like a portal on a boat or something”
—http://www.vacant-nebula.com/blog/2007/ … ownership/ (in the comments)
image labeled as “portal window” which should be called porthole
—http://www.pbase.com/bmacdougall/image/ … 9/original
Last edited by iempleh (2007-12-17 13:01:45)
Offline
About a month ago, one of the Database gatekeepers—Arnold Zwicky—pointed out the portal/porthole reshaping over on the Language Log blog, and he noted that it wasn’t yet recorded in the forum. I was astonished—I thought we already had it (I’ve seen it in student papers a number of times), but he seems to be right. In any case, he said in the LL post that he’d eventually get it into the Database. His post is here: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/language … 05103.html
Offline
Interesting, in that the language log post is about the opposite conversion (i.e. “porthole to hell”) from what I described (i.e. “portal window”).
Offline
There are quite a few of these portal >> porthole examples online.
are the predominant power people of this planet some how connected to a lizard species that utilises an interdimensional porthole to take on a human physical appearence in order to control?
discussion
inside each truck is an interdimensional porthole. when the “garbagemen” collects the “trash” they then activate the porthole by”compacting” the “trash”...
Q&A site
The only thing I could do is jump through the interdimensional porthole to save my boss from a certain death.
round-robin story
Before she morphed totally into a Brill-hater, she’d introduced him to her buddies, filmmakers on the outskirts who might have oozed through an interdimensional porthole but had a clear vision of the future.
story
Offline
Right away this started me looking for porthole >> pothole. These may be cases of poor spelling, but they occur in both the header and the body, so they don’t seem to be typographical errors.
Considering a cruise on Carnival Breeze. Could book for the same price an interior cabin midship on the Riviera deck, or a cabin with pothole windows all the way to the front.
Pothole cabin in the front on the Riviera deck on Carnival Breeze
Hi all not been finding much at the bootsales of late but picked this Vintage Coventry Astral 123 movement ships pothole clock today, I cannot make the mark out on the face but is a triangle with ? P or F & S
Vintage Coventry Astral 123 movement ships pothole clock bootsale find
I’m thinking of porthole → porthole cover → manhole cover → pothole cover → pothole. Maybe I’m overthinking.
Last edited by Eoin (2017-06-03 16:18:25)
Offline
The “pothole” for “porthole” substitution is a credible eggcorn, IMHO.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
Offline