Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
“Tiny eggcorns, mighty gaffes”
Feeling quite combobulated.
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I like this line:
” Some have spread like wildflowers; others should do (who else thinks we should swap “to dawn on” for “to dong on”?). ”
That’s my attitude toward eggcorns—no mocking allowed, no matter what Jan Freeman says!
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I’m having fits of laughter over “pus jewels.” I hope that doesn’t count as mocking.
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I think there is a difference between laughing at the imagery brought about by an eggcorn and mocking the person who uses the eggcorn. I find a lot of these eggcorns humorous on various levels, but I still have a genuine appreciation for the thinking process (as well as the creativity) that brings them about.
Feeling quite combobulated.
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In the Guardian article on eggcorns (Tiny eggcorns, mighty gaffes, Thursday October 05 2006 )
which discusses the growing mishearing of English words (“mighty oaks from tiny eggcorns grow), the opening paragraph reads: “Since Monday, the Guardian letters page has been buzzing with readers throwing in their two-sense worth on the use of “plashy” in Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop. In some editions of the book, it seems..”
Would it have cost more than two cents’ worth of time to fix this eggcorn, or is the writer Emine Saner (?) being ironic?
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That’s deliberate, that “two sense” in a story about eggcorns.
I don’t think she was being ironic—I think she was being funny.
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