Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Hi,
I ran across this possible eggcorn when researching the etymology of the portmonteau word insinuendo.
Both the imagery and meaning for eggcornese are present; it also appears in a variety of settings:
“”Listen to the blabbing brook.” Norm Crosby
“Look into getting a nature soothing sound machine. It has a variety of soothing sounds like a blabbing brook, rainfall, a heartbeat and other natural sounds that can help you relax and fall to sleep.” -response on Yahoo Groups
“Put this on your wish list and you can listen to all the birds, see all the wild life, and listen to the dancing & blabbing brook that flows just in back of the property.” – real estate listing
“blabbing brook curving limp worn the thing so soothing” – poem Bob BrueckL
Do you think the words are too close in meaning to qualify?
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Blab:
verb: speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly
verb: divulge confidential information or secrets
Babble:
1230, babeln “to prattle,” akin to other Western European words for stammering and prattling.
I can see how the first meaning of “blab” is similar to “babble”. The second meaning of blab is another story. Unless the brook is telling secrets.
I’ve always thought of babble, in the brook sense, to refer to the similar sound of a large group of people, say at a reception hall, all conversing at once and producing a sound akin to white noise. No particular conversation is distinguishable. Blabbing, on the other hand, I associate only with irritating noise, so I don’t understand why someone else would frame it in the same soothing context as your examples point out. So.. I don’t think that it’s the similarity of meaning that would disqualify it. Quite the contrary, it’s almost like a reverse eggcorn – the user is forcing a similar imagery on a dissimilar meaning! Joe, aka Jorkel, is quite adept at this type analysis. Perhaps he would kindly jump in and comment.
Thanks for the contribution. Even if not an eggcorn, it’s a fine submission to ponder.
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