Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Bummer that it’s your boss. It’s an interesting one—but seems important to get a perp to confess to be sure what connection is understood.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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124 unique Google hits for “voltive candle” -votive
Can’t be sure they aren’t just typos.
Perhaps “voltave” might be considered less of a typo.
Located just one example when Googling “voltave candle”...
Patio Pottery Header
Vases, voltave candle holders sculptures to decorate different rooms in your home. Flower pots, garden faces and bird feeders for the yard. ...
patiopotter.com/ – 9k – Similar pages
http://patiopotter.com/
Last edited by jorkel (2008-08-27 11:19:04)
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I get 4500 ghits, 400 ughits for “voltive candle” and “voltive holder.” This usage is surprisingly common.
Even discounting the anticipative “l” in “voltive” (to pre-echo the “l” in “candle” and “holder”), the numbers argue that some of these web instances must be catalyzed by “volt.”
A second and less likely possibility is that “volo/velle,” the Latin word for “to will,” may be influencing the spelling of “voltive.” Most Roman Catholics (who are also the major consumers of votive candles) know it through the phrase “Deus vult,” God wills.
Last edited by kem (2008-08-27 11:43:10)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Very few exx with “voltive offeringâ€, where any electrical connection must be fetched from farther. (8 rgh vs. >50K votive o.)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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To follow up on something that David might have alluded to… perhaps “voltive” is construed as an adjective comprised of “vol-” and ”-tive” where the former takes on the meaning “voluntary” or “something done on one’s own volition” ... as, perhaps, the lighting of a candle in remembrance of the departed.
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I work at a weddings magazine, and we are always writing about votive candleholders.
It makes me crazy that “votive” (an adj meaning “having to do w/ prayers,” much as “devotion” does) has become a noun—the editors and stylists all say, “A votive twinkles on the table” and “a frosted votive holder will work better in this arrangement.”
I think I wouldn’t mind it so much if they switched to “voltive”—something with volts.
(as a complete and total aside, I once expressed exasperation w/ the electic votive “candles” that are now in many Catholic churches, and my dad pointed out that the invisibleness and unexpiringness of electricity may actually be a better metaphor for things spiritual)
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kem wrote:
A second and less likely possibility is that “volo/velle,” the Latin word for “to will,” may be influencing the spelling of “voltive.” Most Roman Catholics (who are also the major consumers of votive candles) know it through the phrase “Deus vult,” God wills.
60 raw ghits on “volitive candleâ€. Might not “voltive†be an omission typo or other kind of development from volitive —or a blend of votive and volitive?
“Votive” etymologically comes from words meaning “vow, promise”, but is that itself related to willing or choosing? back somewhere in Indo European. Yes, kem, I know—check the OED…
Anyhow, a candle that you offer willingly makes fine sense. Whether or not users have that in mind is another question.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-27 14:33:20)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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The volitive suggestion is interesting. Personally, I’ve never seen the word “volitive” used anywhere except in a classical grammar (e.g., the volitive subjunctive). But the word has some history in English. The OED says it has been around since the craze for scientific Latinizing of the seventeenth century. It’s not very common, though-I checked a half a billion words in several English corpora and didn’t get a single hit.
I don’t think there is any such thing as a volitive (i.e., freely offered) candle. The “votive” in “votive candle” traces back to the Latin word for “vow.” Candles have had a long association with making vows (including, as TootsNYC points out, wedding vows). But do most ecclesiastical users of votive candles think about the connection between the candle they light and a specific vow? I don’t think they do. Because of this lost connection, “volitive candle” emerges as potential eggcorn, with the user substituting the imagery of a freely offered prayer for that of a vow.
Whether this “volitive candle” eggcorn is tugging on “voltive candle” is hard to say. “Volt” is surely the strongest magnet. We have seen many examples, however, of multiple influences on the eggcorn journey.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Votive comes to candles through “devotion,” I thought—you light them when you make a prayer, and the flame serves as your stand-in for as long as its burns.
Perhaps the “vow” part was original the vow to sin no more, or to be more devout, but since most people focus on the petitionary parts of their prayers, that has mostly fallen away and we think of them as “beseeching” flames.
I do believe that the Catholics I know who “light a candle” for someone as part of a prayer DO think about the connection between the candle and the prayer. I don’t think they particularly restrict it to a vow except perhaps the vow to be ever-faithful or ever-closer to God.
But of course, the SIZE has taken over. A true “votive candle” can be any size or shape you want. The small ones were logistically easier in the racks of candles in a Catholic church, and so the name got attached to the size.
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Being a member of a speech community doesn’t necessarily make you an expert—I think in fact that I’ve managed not to think so hard about things like votive candles exactly because they’re so familiar. But I agree with TootsNYC—“devotional” is a more likely conscious connection than (the etymologically related) “vow.” I’m pretty sure I made the votive/devotional connection as a kid. And Catholics talk of “devotional candles,” too. My gut feeling is that people are more likely to call the 6-inch tapers with the paper drip-catchers used for sunrise service on Easter morning “devotional candles” and more likely to call the squat little tealights found on side altars “votive candles.” But I think I’ve also seen the 6” tapers used at side altars, and I imagine that they were called “votive candles” in that use. But of course this isn’t the type of thing it ever occurred to me to ask anyone about.
As for thinking of “vows” while lighting a votive—I was always told that you should think about your “prayer” while you did the lighting; I always kind of envisioned the candle flame as getting God’s attention.
And those 22 unique hits for “votive candies” are making my sweet tooth throb.
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Devotion does indeed come from the same root: what was devoted to God was promised or vowed into his service. In some cases (e.g. the treasures of Jericho in the book of Joshua) that meant it could not be used in any other way and should in fact be burned or destroyed (“put under the ban” in some translations, as I remember). The New Testament word “anathema” ‘cursed’ comes from this.
All of which is ancient unknown history to a child in a Catholic church today, and I agree that the “devotion”/”votive” connection is the likeliest.
It’s always fun to run into people like you, Pat, who did morphology in your head when you were a child.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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