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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2008-08-16 23:53:31

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

"pay amish to" for "pay homage to"

I usually think of the Amish as being self-sufficient, employed on their own farms or in their “shops.” But as farmland gets more expensive, more and more Amish are finding themselves working for “English” bosses – especially in the building trades, where their experience at erecting their own homes and barns is particularly useful. So people do in fact pay Amish to do things for them. But I’m skeptical that any of the people below were thinking of that – sometimes I think the sound of a word has a strong gravitational pull of its own quite apart from any sense. So I’ve stuck this one in “Slips.” Only 13 hits – at least one of which is a comment on the phrase – but that’s about double what it got a couple of years ago when I first googled it. None of the citations capitalized “Amish.” Examples:

There is no way not to pay amish to this Parisian institution.
http://www.voncigars.com/2007/02/parisi … s-you.html

I admit UD is a great team with extensive talent, I pay amish to the O-line for giving Joe Flacco so much time to throw the ball…
http://forums.delawareonline.com/viewto … ad89a606e6

A church is where you pay amish to god and pray for his love.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea … 2167515054

Last edited by patschwieterman (2008-08-16 23:54:03)

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#2 2008-08-17 17:43:57

rogerthat
Eggcornista
From: Denver, Colorado, USA
Registered: 2008-05-19
Posts: 64

Re: "pay amish to" for "pay homage to"

“Paying amish” does have some good eggcorn imagery though, Pat.

In related slippage, I got ghits( almish ) = 5.4K, everything from legitimate slips to Weird Al Yankovic song lyrics. In the process of thinking about “paying amish,” I sighted upon a floating/flying hyphen candidate: alm-shouse. Maybe flying hyp-hens lay eggcorns when noone is looking.

Last edited by rogerthat (2008-08-17 19:22:28)

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#3 2008-08-17 22:18:07

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

Re: "pay amish to" for "pay homage to"

Bad Roger! Down, boy! (In which you can no doubt reckonize true punsterish admiration.)


*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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#4 2008-08-18 17:00:15

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

Re: "pay amish to" for "pay homage to"

If there is imagery transfer in “paying Amish,” it may have something to do with Amish Demut, the Amish insistence on a humble and submissive approach to God and society. The same imagery may also be at work in “paying almish.” “Alms” evokes a context of religious humility.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#5 2008-08-18 20:17:59

TootsNYC
Eggcornista
Registered: 2007-06-19
Posts: 263

Re: "pay amish to" for "pay homage to"

Isn’t there some other “pay xxxx” phrase in which the “xxxx” is an ethnic group? Or an odd word, like “pay jiggory” (ooh, this is on the edge of my brain, and I can’t grab it; I think it means something like “usury”—and maybe it’s not an ethnic group) Found it! It’s “vigorish,” and no it’s not an ethnic group—but thanks, VisualThesaurus.com!

We “go Dutch.”

Maybe people who use “amish” are simply figuring there’s some old story about the Amish, and honoring people.

Last edited by TootsNYC (2008-08-19 10:54:23)

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#6 2008-08-18 21:00:55

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

Re: "pay amish to" for "pay homage to"

TootsNYC wrote:

Maybe people who use “amish” are simply figuring there’s some old story about the Amish, and honoring people.

Our language is littered with things like that, so it’s a reasonable conjecture, for an eggCornishman, that here is another. E.g. what’s French about French toast, what’s Dutch about Dutch chocolate or a Dutch treat, what’s English about an English horn, what’s Cornish about Cornish rock hens? We don’t really necessarily know, but we suppose something about it came from those cultures.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-19 11:44:51)


*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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#7 2008-08-19 00:54:52

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

Re: "pay amish to" for "pay homage to"

All of the suggestions above are clever and entertaining—but I think we’ve thought far harder about it than the people actually employing the reshaping. None of the more specific explanations offered above seems to me in any way likely, though I think there’s no arguing with TootsNYC’s feeling that the reshapers believed the word “amish” was somehow appropriate. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find (if I could Somehow gain that telepathic access) that they didn’t attempt to define that “somehow” more closely.

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#8 2008-08-19 11:02:39

TootsNYC
Eggcornista
Registered: 2007-06-19
Posts: 263

Re: "pay amish to" for "pay homage to"

(if I could Somehow gain that telepathic access)

sigh, yeah, I know, wouldn’t that be nice?

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