Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
A review on B&N.com:
“I found this book by accident, bought it on a whim, and it was great! In a nut shell, the book is about passion. If you feel passionate about any endeavor, golf, mountain climbing, etc… you will feel an infinity for what the author accomplished in rally driving. It was a quick read. I read it in two days, laughed out loud on many occasions and he wrote it in a style that I could feel myself behind the wheel of a sports car. I recommend this book very highly.”
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Dr … 0061227936
“From visiting their web site, I’d guess that this quarterly focusing more on yo-yos than on tops, however, I’ve never seen an issue and am willing to withhold judgement. It looks to be a very promising magazine, especially if you have an infinity for yo-yos.”
http://www.sandstrum.com/TOPLINKS.HTML
I saw this first on facebook, which privacy settings won’t allow me to repaste, but someone asked an old friend if they “still had an infinity for HoHos,” which was doubly funny and eggcornish because the person being questioned is seven months pregnant, and probably does have an infinite appetite for HoHos.
“Let’s not get bogged down in semantics.”—Homer Simpson to Gary Coleman
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This is interesting, but with the exception of your last example I see no semantic link between infinity and affinity.
In your last example, you suggest that the object of the phrase may have an infinite appetite, which could be related to (albeit stronger than) an affinity. You suggest, though, that this is not a usual usage; it’s “doubly funny”.
A substitution of a near-homophone with no related semantics would be a malaprop, rather than an eggcorn.
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See, I’m not with you here, nilep. I’ve seen you argue against semantic linkages a good couple of times, and I can’t help but feel that your definition is a bit too rigid. As an example of an eggcorn that passes muster here (and I choose it because it’s the first one that appears in the database) is “in the rears” for “in arrears.” “In the rears” is an invented phrase that probably has at its root a thought of rear = being behind, and similarly an “infinity” indicates an endless attraction, propensity, or interest in something. My argument is that if you find the latter to have a tenuous semantic link, I think you could say the same for the former—neither has as obvious a reshaping as our Golden God, the word “eggcorn” itself.
In the first example, “you will feel an infinity for the author” I think is a clear image of an infinite amount of empathy, or understanding. The second, “an infinity for yo-yos” is more of a stretch, but still suggests an infinite appetite for playing with yo-yos.
“Let’s not get bogged down in semantics.”—Homer Simpson to Gary Coleman
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Well, I enter this discussion with a clear bias – in June of last year, I started a post on “affinity>>infinity” with the intention of posting it on the “Slips, etc.” page as an entertaining non-eggcorn. I never got beyond rounding up some examples, but it’s clear to me now what my opinion was at the time.
Thinking about it again, I’m not as willing to rule out the possibility of the phrase’s eggcornicity for some speakers. And if there’s any eggcornish thinking behind this one, then billyphuz’s description probably pretty much nails it.
But I think this is a borderline case. A consensus long ago developed on the forum that the definition of eggcorn has to be speaker-bound – certain reshapings are going to be eggcorns for some speakers, but malaprops (or something else) for others, depending on whether or not the user has found a semantic justification for the new phrase. It seems likely then that different reshapings are likely to have different malaprop-to-eggcorn ratios, and my guess is that “an infinity for” is probably going to be a malaprop for a good many people who use it; I believe it’s going to be more of a reach for more people than “in the rears” or (Our Golden God) “eggcorn.”
I don’t think that “infinity” by itself conjures up much of a picture of affect or emotion for most people. In fact, for me it always sounds a bit clinical and mathematical, and I have trouble making it mean “empathy” or “understanding” or anything similar. Most of the people who are using it that way have to be thinking of the meaning of “affinity,” but are just plainly getting the word wrong. And even if “inifinity” did regularly carry more of a psychological nuance, why would it necessarily be positive? Why can’t having an infinity for something mean having an infinite hate for it? This one just requires too much justification to be really widespread as an eggcorn.
On a forum that devotes itself to finding examples of eggcorns, the default bias is naturally going to be in favor of considering a given questionable reshaping an eggcorn. That’s just predictable human psychology, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But I think it’s worthwhile to acknowledge that bias and to try and identify it where we can. Personally, I appreciate nilep’s skeptical eye very much in that regard. His posts pinpoint interesting problems with others’ examples, inject a useful linguistic awareness into the proceedings, and work tirelessly to clarify that difficult-to-define line between eggcorn and malaprop. Bravo, say I. One man’s rigidity is another’s rigor. And in any case, no two people will always draw the malaprop/eggcorn line at the same place. Not only is there room on the forum for disagreement, but disagreement’s probably really a necessary precondition for our struggle toward clarity on this very subjective topic.
Since I’ve got a few more examples of “affinity>>infinity” lying around, I’ll post them here. Billyphuz and I only only overlapped on the delightful “yo yo” citation, which I’ve deleted:
Not only do Koreans have an infinity for the Irish, they also have one for the French who live in Quebec, Canada.
http://ricedaddies.blogspot.com/2007/03 … -irsh.html
And I think to me it is really intriguing that women all over the world have an infinity for fiber work one way or the other and I think that common thread so to speak that goes through it is really fascinating.
http://www.centerforthequilt.org/qsos/s … s-a0a3n8-a
Do you have an infinity for baseball statistical analysis and want to display your knowledge to thousands of readers within the Baseball community? If you have a solid understanding of advanced baseball statistics and have good written skills, consider joining our analytical group.
http://www.insiderbaseball.com/baseballanalyst.htm
Last edited by patschwieterman (2008-04-25 00:34:59)
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Thanks, Pat; you defend my skepticism as scholarly rigor more eloquently than ever I could.
That said, I do need to allow that infinity for seems to be a borderline eggcorn; its use as “an infinite appetite for Hohos” may be eggcornish. I think I’m with Pat, though, in arguing that this is the less frequent case. That is, infinity for is often a malaprop, and only occasionally an eggcorn.
-Chad Nilep
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