Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
Spotted in the wild:
I just received an e-mail advising us that two new temporary employees are now “up in running” in our e-mail system.
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Hi Husker, and welcome to the forum. I’m not sure what to make of this one, but surprisingly, the wild is “up in running†with them. I got huge hit counts from google (most of them probably slippage):
ghits( “up in running†) = 271K.
ghits( “up and running†) = 13.5M.
The imagery for this one is somewhat tricky for me because I’m having trouble reconciling a gerund as the object of a preposition. The only imagery I could cook up on short notice follows. For example, if ‘running’ relates to competition, then “in the running†might mean “competitively in the contest.†So, “up in running†might be a subliminal slip relating to “doing well competing in a contest.†But, in the email system context, I’m guessing there’s no contest. Sorry, that it didn’t fit very well and I can’t think of any other imagery right now. Could somebody out there could cook up a better idiomatic fit? Hmm…
I went through a slow learning curve trying to understand that the imagery of an eggcorn must fit into the context somehow. Notwithstanding that my current understanding of the imagery and context requirements is probably not completely “up in running.†Anyway, I hope you find my poor example of imagery at least somewhat helpful. Please keep your eyes open, I think you’re pointed in the right direction!
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