Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
I just cain’t handle them refired beans.
Calories in Old ElPaso Refired Beans With Chiles – Nutrition Facts, and Healthy Alternatives
(2.8K ghits, some clearly purposeful)
Can of course be an innocent metathesis typo. The first example reported above was spoken, not written.
I has definite alternative imagery for me, but I’m not sure it does for those who might use it. It’s fun, in any case.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-07-08 21:46:02)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Google says there are about 300 unique instances. Hard to believe there could be that many independent cases of the same letter switch. On the other hand, there are 50 unique hits for “reified beans,” for which I see no semantic motivation. And a hundred unique hits for “refined beans” in contexts that seem to be equivalent to “refried beans.” So perhaps they are just metatheses and misspellings.
Could there be large language communities that are more familiar with “refired” than “refried?”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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