Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Below, excerpts from an article about humorous blunders on exams, from
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_29 … s.quirkies
The article lists the usual funny malaprops, but I think the three I excerpt below are close enough in meaning to be considered eggcorns. The excerpted article even refers to them as “truer than intended”, which I think speaks to their eggcorniness (eggcornosity?). In fact, “escape goats”, not surprisingly, has been mentioned on Eggcorn Forum more than once. The line about tackling climate change requiring an “unpresidented response” seems particularly apt in view of the Bush administration’s obstructionist policies re: climate change.
“Among the gems from this year’s exams are an economics student at City University in London who attributed Northern Rock’s downfall to “laxative enforcement policies”.
“An English literature student from Bath Spa University wrote that Margaret Atwood’s book, The Handmaid’s Tale, shows how patriarchy treats women as “escape goats”.
“A University of Southampton student concerned by global warming wrote that: “Tackling climate change will require an “unpresidented response.”
Dixon
Offline
Dixon Wragg wrote:
Below, excerpts from an article about humorous blunders on exams, from
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_29 … s.quirkies
The article lists the usual funny malaprops, but I think the three I excerpt below are close enough in meaning to be considered eggcorns. The excerpted article even refers to them as “truer than intended”, which I think speaks to their eggcorniness (eggcornosity?). In fact, “escape goats”, not surprisingly, has been mentioned on Eggcorn Forum more than once. The line about tackling climate change requiring an “unpresidented response” seems particularly apt in view of the Bush administration’s obstructionist policies re: climate change.
“Among the gems from this year’s exams are an economics student at City University in London who attributed Northern Rock’s downfall to “laxative enforcement policies”.
“An English literature student from Bath Spa University wrote that Margaret Atwood’s book, The Handmaid’s Tale, shows how patriarchy treats women as “escape goats”.
“A University of Southampton student concerned by global warming wrote that: “Tackling climate change will require an “unpresidented response.”
Dammit! I typed that last post with plenty of space between paragraphs, and it printed with them jammed together! What do I have to do to get these things to print the way I type them??????
Offline
Dixon Wragg wrote:
Dammit! I typed that last post with plenty of space between paragraphs, and it printed with them jammed together! What do I have to do to get these things to print the way I type them??????
I feel sad when you swear at the forum software. Or is it at me?
The problem was that your paragraphs started with spaces: this is a sign to Textile to do something—I’m not sure what. I took them out and Wallah!
Anyhow, escape goat is actually in the database , but the entry should be edited to add some material about the etymology of scapegoat, which is interesting in itself.
Offline
Wouldn’t “escapegoat” for “scapegoat” fail (or at least do poorly on) the test of etymological independence?
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
Offline
Chris Waigl wrote:
I feel sad when you swear at the forum software. Or is it at me?
It’s not at you. Be assured that I appreciate your efforts.
The problem was that your paragraphs started with spaces: this is a sign to Textile to do something—I’m not sure what. I took them out and Wallah
Thanks. I’m slowly learning.
Dixon
Offline
kem wrote:
Wouldn’t “escapegoat” for “scapegoat” fail (or at least do poorly on) the test of etymological independence?
Now that I’ve looked up the etymology of “scapegoat”, I’m inclined to agree with you on that, kem. Maybe it’s not actually an eggcorn after all.
Dixon
Offline
kem wrote:
Wouldn’t “escapegoat” for “scapegoat” fail (or at least do poorly on) the test of etymological independence?
I’m not sure I subscribe to this test in its stricter form. If educated native speakers have to consult a dictionary in order to find out that, maybe even to their surprise, the scape in scape goat is the same constituent as in escape then this etymology has become obscure. Escape goat is an eggcorn for me.
This is unlike more obvious examples, say, expresso versus espresso. The Italian form is espresso, while in French they say express(o)—the common origin is quite obvious and there’s not much interesting going on here. Even if you consider that English speakers writing expresso might have thought of express trains or deliveries, here, too, the very same image underpins the words as is present in the espresso original.
Offline
What makes the etymological test important is it that it flags the possibility that the eggcorn candidate might have persevered in a restricted linguistic community. If the eggcorn is coined by someone without access to that parallel tradition, then it is of course just as valid as an eggcorn that shares no etymological roots with the acorn.
Scape was used nonidiomatically in English until at least the end of the seventeenth century (The OED has a nineteenth century citation, but it could be consciously archaic.). It does seems unlikely that “scape” survived in some linguistic backwater and emerged to influence the creation of “escapegoat.”
On the other hand, I can remember hearing “scapegoat” for the first time and thinking that it had something to do with escaping. Which it did (Although its connection to the act of escaping is based on what appears, in the light of a better understanding of the underlying Hebrew texts, a mistranslation-but that’s another story.). So I may have guessed at the etymological connection without speaking a dialect of English that hosted both words. I would be more comfortable with calling “escapegoat” an eggcorn if there was more sound separation between the sister words. The really choice eggcorn here is “scrapegoat.”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
Offline