Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Did anyone else hear the economist Michael Greenberger’s report on NPR’s Fresh Air today? He referred to something having a “herd of steam” rather than a “head of steam.” An eggcornical moment. “Head of steam” derives from the (now almost unknown) technology of steam power. A steam engine requires a “head” of pressurized stream above the water line of the boiler-not dissimilar to the frothy head on a freshly drawn mug of beer. But the steam could also be pictured as a “herd” of water molecules pressing to escape the confines of the boiler.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Yes, I heard him, but I wasn’t sure whether Greenberger used a lexical substitution or just a mispronunciation. That is, in his head, did he intend herd (making it possibly an eggcorn) or did he intend head and just make it unduly rhotic? Listening to it again, I hear no typical markers of disfluency, nor other rhoticized vowels, so it may be a reshaping.
The curious can listen to the interview here. The word occurs about 2:24 into the interview.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor … d=89338743
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