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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2008-07-31 00:05:36

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

"backclog" for "backlog"

Speaking of credit for eggcorn finds, I thought I had a good idea for an eggcorn, so I was a bit crestfallen when I saw a familiar URL among the hits:

Thanks for humoring my inside-out thinking as I struggle to reclaim my brain from an extensive back-clog of incomplete linguistic experiences.
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … d=2179&p=2

I thought, “Huh – I don’t remember anyone posting ‘back-clog.’” Turns out that this isn’t from examples in a post – it’s Rogerthat writing, responding to posts by Nilep and Jon. My rule for myself is that if a citation turns up on a language-oriented blog, I should assume it was intentional and not an eggcorn. In any case, I’m happy to note that Rogerthat thought of this before I did.

“Back-clog” makes sense to me—a clog that backs things up. It’s less common than I expected, however—not even 20 unique hits. Examples:

Turns out there’s a pretty stupidly huge backclog of non-videogame stuff I’ve wanted to write about that just didn’t belong on my 1up blog, and this thing’s just so fucking easy to work with that there’s little excuse for not keeping the site up.
http://sharkey.gamespite.net/forum/index.php?topic=32.0

Thanks! there are a few more coming out of my backclog, and then I hope to get back to current events (such as shrinking fish).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edyson/6079727/

Usually I get a bit of a backclog up at the front desk—with the form it’s a lot less than when Check-Out consisted of “twenty question” orally.
http://dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com/104269.html

Villar also paid tribute to his colleagues in the chamber, who painstakingly took the extra effort of working overtime during the past weeks to clear the Senate legislative mill of any backclog.
http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/ … illar1.asp
[I’ve commented before that transcriptions of speeches from the Irish Dail seem to provide a surprising number of eggcorns, but this is the first time that I can remember for a gov’t doc from the Phillipines.]

I’ve often wondered what the origin of “backlog” was. I assumed it was probably taken from the idea of a daily “log” of orders at a company– once you started having to flip “back,” you were getting behind. But the OED tells me that I’ve come up with my own folk etymology. They claim it comes from a large log kept at the back of a fire as a kind of reserve. Well, that’s cool, too.

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#2 2008-07-31 08:40:09

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: "backclog" for "backlog"

Excellent!

A log at the back of the fire? The OED says so? Wow.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#3 2008-07-31 15:09:44

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "backclog" for "backlog"

You could have fooled me with the OED derivation. Until ninety seconds ago, I shared your folk etymology of “backlog.” “Backclog” is wonderful.

Last edited by kem (2008-07-31 19:43:21)


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#4 2008-08-02 15:53:22

klakritz
Eggcornista
From: Winchester Massachusetts
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 674

Re: "backclog" for "backlog"

It’s not uncommon for people to write ‘blacklog’ for ‘backlog,’ but I’m not sure what they’re thinking about. Examples:

when i make a new message to send it seems i have a blacklog of messages that never went through previously …
www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroup … xpress&tid

City Exchange: I have a blacklog of submissions without screenshots to sort through, not sure how many of those emailed ones I’ll put online
www.sc3000.com/.../messages.cfm?mid=579 … 13-EFZ-158

We’ve got a blacklog of exciting stories to post, so make sure you keep coming back!
blogs.propertyfinder.com/outthere/2006/09/

Instead they’re filing 500 patents per year, “with a blacklog of 3000 ideas.”
nevereatalone.typepad.com/blog/2008/05/create-your-own.html

The grades are just part of the paper work: I had a blacklog of lesson plans.
themusicteacher.wordpress.com/2007/09/

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#5 2008-08-02 19:13:32

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: "backclog" for "backlog"

Blacklog could well be a phonological anticipation thing: L-spreading, you might call it :-)

I’m with kem—I still can’t convince myself about that fire-log. A backlog is always a series of tasks, not a single task, that one has accumulated and that must be dealt with. The idea of a list, a log in that sense, makes much more sense.

Possibly, if OED is right, there was a hidden eggcorning at some point, and then usage followed the new analysis, resulting in the situation I described, where the prototypical scenario the phrase now fits does not fit the original meaning. (We’ve seen that happening, I think, in a number of cases we’ve discussed, where there are a bunch a cases that fit either analysis, but now cases start appearing which fit the new analysis better, or even only.)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#6 2008-08-11 13:26:04

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1222

Re: "backclog" for "backlog"

The verb form of ‘clog’ is quite common in the UK but apparently less so in the US. Things are always getting clogged up over here, especially drains. The clogging, to my mind at least, is less to do with wooden shoes than the ‘clagginess’ of whatever is hindering the flow. Claggy things get clogged, especially in drains, conduits etc, which seems to fit backclog pretty well.

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#7 2008-08-11 15:29:59

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: "backclog" for "backlog"

Yes, backclog makes wonderful sense. It is a perfectly normal verb for me (US English, though I live in other countries mostly), and also a noun: in this construction I can easily construe it either way. Which is part of the beauty of the thing.

Claggy, now, that is a new one to me. But a lot of words seem to fit, clay-ey, cloying, closely clinging cliques clumping together …

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-11 15:31:21)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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