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#1 2008-08-20 15:21:59

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

“malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

“Malingering” means feigning an illness to get out of something. Maybe someone on the forum will train the eggcornification beam on this one, but I think it’s a “fancy malaprop.” Entertaining, though. 58/25 r/ughits – you could of course vary the noun and find more. Examples:

The stench that emanated from this fog was a putrid, malingering odor that was reminiscent of weeks old decomposing bodies left there to rot by things beyond memory and best left to the imagination.
http://www.angelfire.com/ga/dracodracon … ories.html

And if you are a smoker, for the love of Baby Jesus, please let that malingering odor dissipate before you get in the elevator. I almost puked on your shoes.
http://www.debutaunt.com/archives/000576.php

The air inside is humid, heavy and unsettling. A malingering odor of old decay riles my senses.
http://downinthecellar.com/oldsouls.php

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#2 2008-08-20 16:39:33

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

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

In this case your customary humility is justified, I think. Seems like “malingering” shares none of its toys with the “lingering” it replaces.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#3 2008-08-20 17:25:11

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

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

except perhaps that “malingering” is “lingering” in a “mal” way.

A lingering odor could be pleasant; but every one of those examples would qualify for “mal” status.

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#4 2008-08-20 17:54:11

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

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

I’m with Toots here: if it really just meant the same as “lingering” you would get pleasant examples. I find it hard to imagine them.

Of course olfactory terms tend to be used euphemistically and so migrate downwards: stink and stench used to be neutral, smell and odor are, if unqualified, presumed unpleasant by many of us, and in many circles fragrance, aroma and perfume are used ironically for unpleasant odors often enough that they have become suspect. So even if there’s nothing mal with malingering, these expressions might be negative.

fwiw “malingering freshness” is a googlenope (“lingering freshness” is 1.3K). Ditto for “malingering brightness” (vs. 468). “Lingering questions” is 190K, but all 10 ghits on “malingering questions” seem to be legit non-slips except perhaps

TOM’s back Im happy now any malingering questions needing research can be readdressed Let’s put the TOMDerBrucer and this Denkat thing to rest forever …
www.sondheim.com/community/index.php?topic=439.380

Doubtless you all can think of other collocations worth trying.


*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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#5 2008-08-20 19:40:13

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

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

It’s true—the connotations of “malingering” are decidedly negative, and I don’t think you even need to refer to “mal-” to make that point. But for me, the fact that something contributes a generally negative or positive resonance just isn’t enough by itself to justify a claim of eggcornicity. In this case it’s pretty darn hard to see anything specific about the meaning of “malingering” as being relevant to “lingering.” (I actually anticipated that someone might try to make the argument that malingering people linger in bed instead of coming to work—I’m relieved that hasn’t shown up yet.) And I need some kind of specifics—even if they don’t point to the essential core meaning of the acorn—before I’m willing to bestow the eggcorn label on a reshaping.

As for DT’s statistical data, the malingering/lingering ratio is so small that the only instance that surprises me at all is the the “lingering questions” case. Unless that huge number for “lingering questions” is bogus (which is possible but not obvious), I would indeed have expected more instances of “malingering questions.” But isn’t that counter-evidence to DT’s point? Aren’t “lingering questions” usually negative? They raise suspicions and frustrations, and the use of “lingering questions” is I think sometimes intended to suggest in a non-actionable way that someone may not be telling the whole truth. So yeah, where are all those hits for “malingering questions”?! Huh? Huh?? (Well, actually, I’m not sure that this is good evidence either way for a number of reasons—and it’d be interesting but difficult to look at how often “lingering questions” is used in non-edited environments.) Finally, I think “lingering odors” are generally bad odors, though I’m sure there are exceptions given the 20k+ hits.

Humility? Well, that’s kind or something, but I thought I was staking out an ideological boundary with all those recent “not an eggcorn” posts.

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#6 2008-08-20 23:43:03

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

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

You certainly raise the bar. It’s not easy to slip substandard eggcorns past you. You’re a hard man, Patrick.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#7 2008-08-21 08:05:59

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

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

patschwieterman wrote:

Aren’t “lingering questions” usually negative? They raise suspicions and frustrations, and the use of “lingering questions” is I think sometimes intended to suggest in a non-actionable way that someone may not be telling the whole truth. So yeah, where are all those hits for “malingering questions”? Huh? Huh?? (Well, actually, I’m not sure that this is good evidence either way for a number of reasons <snip>

I suspect that Toots and I were both reacting to kem’s summation: ‘Seems like “malingering” shares none of its toys with the “lingering” it replaces.’ We thought (and I still think) it shares its negative reputation with it. I agree with you that that is pretty minimal, and raising the bar for eggcornhood above that level is a reasonable thing to do. But it is a difference of degree, not a difference of kind.

Found an interesting one:

The Witch’s Brew – Google Books Result
by Luwillis Gibson – 2002 – Social Science – 478 pages
Malingering suspicions of course are heightened by the fact that this acceptable, eclectic motivator has affected real people. ...
books.google.com.mx/books?isbn=1553696646

If I read the source text right (check it out) these malingering suspicions are precisely the opposite of what might be expected, namely suspicions that people are malingering. (See other hits for “malingering suspicions”.) The suspicions that something is wrong are heightened (lowered, kem?) by consideration of the fact that these are people who would not be expected to malinger.

To agree with your original post, Pat, whatever else it is, it is a “fancy malaprop”, and an entertaining one.


*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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#8 2008-08-21 12:35:18

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

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

“Lingering” means hanging back, staying around, dwelling on, being tardy. “Malingering,” which probably does not share a derivation with “lingering” (though the OED hints at some eggcornish influence of “lingerer” on “malingerer”), means to feign illness in order to escape some onerous responsibility. “Malinger” had a specific technical sense for much of its life-it referred to what people did when they avoided military service by pleading ill health.

What I’m not seeing in these substitutions of “malingering” for “lingering” is a transfer of the specific meaning of “malinger” to the new context. Showing that some of the substitutions presuppose that “malingering/lingering” is used negatively makes only the smallest step in the direction of the transfer. Wouldn’t an eggcornical use require “malingering questions” to carry with it some hint that the questions were engaged in ruse to avoid a duty?


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#9 2008-08-21 14:01:37

nilep
Eggcornista
Registered: 2007-03-21
Posts: 291

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

It seems like people might hear the form malinger and store it away without understanding its meaning or usage. They then imagine that the semantically under-specified form must be related to the similar-sounding linger, and perhaps analyze the residue as a form of mal “bad”.

So, what we have is not a reshaping of “lingering odor” >> “malingering odor”, but rather a (mis)interpretation of malingering. It’s sort of a malaprop in the reverse direction: rather than producing a similar-sounding word for an intended meaning, people produce a meaning for a misunderstood word.

(I think I’ve just summarized the thread, as opposed to adding anything interesting.)

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#10 2008-08-21 16:38:01

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

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

<i> “stink and stench used to be neutral”</i>

My smart-alec little brother used to sniff appreciatively when he walked through the kitchen and say, “Mmmm, mmm, that stinks good!”

I’ll have to let him know he was regressing, not innovating. (it has always cracked me up, though)

I’m probably echoing nilep (though I’m not completely sure) in musing that perhaps what is changing is “malingering,” and now people think that “malingering” means “hanging around until you smell bad, like a malingering odor.” (malingerers certainly linger—they ain’t marching brisky off to war)

(I’m not making any arguments here for true eggcorn status, mind you; just enjoying the interplay of the two words, and admiring “malingering odor”)

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#11 2008-08-21 17:02:24

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

Re: “malingering odor” for “lingering odor”

Just occurred to me to wonder: might “malingering odor” be a blend of lingering and mal-odor(ous)? Naaah. Maybe? Naah. Probably not.


*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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