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
To me, “Slacked” doesn’t feel quite right in the usage “interest slacked (off).” It seems to me that the intended usage is “interest flagged.” Although the latter isn’t exactly idiomatic, it does seem more in-the-language. I just think that the “slack” usage was begotten of the “flag” usage ... maybe not enough for it to be an eggcorn. Any thoughts?
Examples:
Web ResultsForum : Washington Diary – <BI>Andreas Frew</BI> reports fro…
By Sunday night, there was no sign that the interest was slacking . But early that evening NASA suddenly shut down the JPL press operation. ...
space.newscientist.com/article/mg15520928.300-fo… – 38k – Similar pages
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h … wanted=all
M. C. Meijer’s “Misunderstanding Natives in the Seventeenth …
While information, such as the letters of Columbus and Vespucci, were initially received with enthusiasm, interest slacked off thereafter. ...
www.geocities.com/paris/chateau/6110/NewFrance.h… – 53k – Similar pages
http://www.geocities.com/paris/chateau/ … France.htm
Last edited by jorkel (2008-03-10 10:43:19)
Offline
I’m someone who might well use the phrase “interest slacked off” without giving it another thought, so I probably have a built-in bias towards considering this a non-eggcorn. But the OED evidence also seems to suggest that this usage is a contemporary extension of a well-established sense of the intransitive form of “to slack.” The dictionary gives the following definition for one meaning of the verb:
11. To diminish in strength or speed; to become weaker or slower; to moderate in some respect.
The earliest citation there for this usage is 1580, while the earliest citation for a similar figurative use of intransitive “to flag” is from 1639—over half a century later.
Another related, if slightly less relevant, sense occurs as early as 1560:
10. Of persons (or animals): To become less energetic, active, or diligent.
Admittedly, nearly all the relevant “slack” citations in the OED are for natural forces like wind, rain, etc., or for people/animals. But concepts like “interest,” “attendance” or “resolution” don’t seem to start slacking until the twentieth century (or maybe the editors just weren’t concerned to find examples?), while resolution was already flagging in the 17th century. Nevertheless, I’d say that the “interest slacked off” construction is a pretty natural and predictable extension of the earlier usage. We probably can’t rule out a bit of interference from “to flag,” but the modern use could easily have grown up independently.
Another thing that caught my eye is that the “slack off” form only gets started in the second half of the 19th century, but it seems to be the dominant one today. I googled “rain slacked,” and it looked like only about one third to two fifths of writers were using “slacked” without the “off.” I’ve noticed before that 20th and 21st century writers (esp. Americans) often use a verb plus preposition in places where writers in the 19th C and before would have employed just the bare verb. But I’ve never seen an explanation for the shift. Has anyone else run into a discussion of this?
Finally, I would never write, “The rain slacked.” It feels too abrupt—I need that “off” at the end. So I was a bit surprised to see that plenty of writers are still using “slacked” by itself. Is this a British/American split? Or do many other Americans say, “The wind has slacked”?
Last edited by patschwieterman (2008-03-10 12:47:37)
Offline