Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
“To transverse” is often mistakenly substituted for “to traverse,” meaning to travel across or over something. “Transverse” invokes the concept of across-ness, and therein lies justification for nominating it as an eggcorn rather than mere malapropism. Sorry I have no citations, but I’ve repeatedly heard this misusage over the years, and, until recently, I didn’t know where to air my complaint!
Last edited by rapscallion (2008-01-30 21:24:50)
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Welcome to the site, rapscallion. I arrived here by the same method. I agree that what you have here is an eggcorn, for the reasons you site. I was able to find about 1000 google hits between searches for “transverse the Atlantic” and “transverse the Continent”:
... an entire fleet of such ships to carry their exported petroleum not only across the Caspian, but in fact, safely transverse the Atlantic as well. ...
ezinearticles.com/?Ludvig-Nobel—-Oil-Pioneer&id=858914 39k
They were headed for Antarctica with a goal of being the first men to transverse the continent on foot. This is how the author, Alfred Lansing, ...
www.tulsalibrary.org/booksandreading/now/sea.htm – 19k
Seeing how you were keen to understand the imagery transfer (“across-ness of “trans””) that almost always accompanies the birth of an eggcorn, I hope I’ve helped you transverse the waters of irritation to arrive at the shores of entertainment.
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Wow—thanks for the online research and your words of encouragement, booboo. Yet doesn’t a true eggcorn have to be a homophone—or near-homophone—of the intended word or phrase? I was overcome with “poster’s remorse” and a feeling that, due to the phonetic non-correspondence of transverse with traverse, many members of this board were collectively slapping open palm against forehead at the inanity of my suggestion. Or is it just me?... :)
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Perhaps transverse stretches the phonetic boundries of similarity. But, I don’t know that it breaks them. I think our minds will, themselves, stretch credulity to “fill in the gaps” between what we heard and what it possibly could have “really” been. In all eggcorn cases it’s the context that seems to be understood so well – but the mutation of what we heard into what could make sense….all bets are off! “Trans-Atlantic” and “trans-continental” are fairly well-known phrases that could be exerting eggcorn influence here. The fact that you’ve actually heard “transverse” said in conversation goes a long way towards legitimizing the validity of it being a spoken, and not just typed, eggcorn.
As far as poster’s remorse – who’s to know how many head-slaps we cause. By and large, the forum is full of good-humored, sincere people. You should post and participate as long as it’s enjoyable to you, and not worry about the rest of us. From time to time, many regulars will alight on some particular submission, but there have been many great submissions with few additional comments. Sometimes the orignal post says it all. Yours nearly did. I’m glad there was a little room left for comments.
Last edited by booboo (2008-02-03 17:08:58)
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Here’s the example I heard on Antiques Roadshow this evening: “He was the first man to transverse the Northwest Passage.” So of course I came running to the Eggcorn Forum :^D
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