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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Long ago I posted the eggcorn “On that FAITHFUL day,” and just now I came across this other one:
Google counts on Sept 1, 2008:
23,000 “on that fateful day”
946 “On that fatal day” —eggcorn
Granted that whatever happen on that day may have been fatal, the linguistic prototype is still “on that fateful day.”
Jane Memorial
While she and her two partners made several errors of judgment on that fatal day (they should never have attempted that climb with Carlos, ...
www.cs.unm.edu/~moret/jane.html – 8k – Similar pages
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~moret/jane.html
Father’s Day Fatal Car Accident After Church Service in Veni…
Jun 16, 2008 … I don’t believe I can ever look at another carnation and without thinking of my fellow parishioners on that fatal day. ...
www.reeveslawblog.com/2008/06/16/father%E2%80%99… – 67k – Similar pages
http://www.reeveslawblog.com/2008/06/16 … in-venice/
Rediff On The NeT: CBI seeks closure of unresolved Sister Ab…
It is said that the persons who were behind it had done Abhaya to death after she caught them in compromising positions on that fatal day. ...
www.rediff.com/news/1999/jul/13keral.htm?zcc=rl – 12k – Similar pages
http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/jul/13keral.htm?zcc=rl
Spring 2004 Report
... meter of snow on Halifax), on that fatal day of the Ides of March, Bishop’s University was seeing its first picket lines in about 160 years of history. ...
defencefund.caut.ca/english/Reports/Spring2004.h… – 9k – Similar pages
http://defencefund.caut.ca/english/Repo … ng2004.htm
Amazon.co.uk: The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest: Anatol…
Having read Into Thin Air by John Krakauer, which gives Krakauer’s version of events on that fatal day, this book contrasts heavily to Krakauer’s style of …
www.amazon.co.uk/Climb-Tragic-Ambitions-Everest/... – 205k – Similar pages
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Climb-Tragic-Am … 0330488961
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Joe—I know you don’t have easy access to the OED, and this is one of those places where it’d come in handy. Chaucer was already talking about days that were “fatal”—in the sense that they determined someone’s fate—way back in the late 14th century. “Fateful,” by contrast, is first cited in the early 18th century, by which time “that fatal day” already seems to have been establishing itself as an idiom—it’s all over 18th and `9th C writing, and I’d imagine some modern uses descend in an unbroken chain from the earlier use. Probably some people who use “fatal day” on the Web today would have chosen “fateful” if they had understood how it would sound to some other people, but I think these two have to be seen as variants of each other rather than as eggcorn and acorn.
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Thanks Pat, it sure helps to have your access to the OED and the literature to shed light on stuff that is simply ambiguous with only Google as my resource.
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