Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2011-03-08
“Mr. Meaner” for misdemeanor.
Regrettably, I’ve never seen it written down, but as a lawyer I hear it often.
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You have submitted an instant classic. Not bad for a first post. There was an earlier submission to this forum on “misty/misted meanors”- I take this to be a malapropism rather than an eggcorn. See http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=668 . But you are the first to report “mr. meaners,” which has all the marks of an eggcorn.
You will find written versions of the “mr. meaners” eggcorn all over the net. Three samples:
Letter to a forum on animal cruelty: “Being apart of this forum, has really opened my eyes up to how many cases there are.I had no idea, I had only herd of one my whole life, and in the last week on this forum ive herd of three???? and they are not small mr meaners? ” (http://tinyurl.com/5qegqp)
Forum posting on policing: “I mean murders rapes and other high profile things are just not important, but mr meaners are way more important.” (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/archive … 82995.html)
Report from an air pistol club: “This year our range and facilities have been checked by the police and with only a few Mr-meaners to be dealt with” (http://www.potfire.com.au/rnpc/naspost18.htm)
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This one’s been covered before within:
“misted meanor” for misdemeanor by Frank ess Contribute! 2 2006-08-10 13:53:04 by Frank ess
If you read that thread carefully, Ken Lakritz points out that he submitted “Mister meaner” earlier; In the old Eggcorn Forum format, individuals used to drop new eggcorns in the comment section. It was a rather chaotic arrangement since it’s not as conducive to searches as the Forum is.
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One option I didn’t think about when writing this post last year was “misty manners.” Abram Smythe Palmer in Folk-etymology, http://books.google.ca/books?id=8AcYAAA … =titlepage , p. xxiv, mentions this corruption and gives the source where he found it. “Misty manners” comes closer to being an eggcorn than “misty meanors.” I can’t find any modern examples of this switch, however.
Last edited by kem (2009-04-08 11:27:13)
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