Eggcorn Forum

Discussions about eggcorns and related topics

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to if you wish to register.

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

#1 2008-09-10 07:34:08

PeteMella
Member
Registered: 2008-09-10
Posts: 9

"Laments terms" for "Layman's terms"

This one was posted on the “I Judge You When You Use Bad Grammar” Facebook group.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1 … 2209553478

If you can’t see the link it’s a screengrab from Yahoo answers –
[sic throughout!] “i have that camera too. what happened is probably becuase your hand or finger was applying force to the lens which automatically slowly comes out when you turn it on. so in laments terms—->dont wirry it happens all the time”

The original source is http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index … 853AA3iBqX

Last edited by PeteMella (2008-09-11 03:25:27)

Offline

 

#2 2008-09-10 08:06:53

PeteMella
Member
Registered: 2008-09-10
Posts: 9

Re: "Laments terms" for "Layman's terms"

And a quick google search shows it’s surprisingly common…

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rl … s%22&meta=

Offline

 

#3 2008-09-10 11:13:59

JonW719
Eggcornista
From: Colorado
Registered: 2007-09-05
Posts: 285

Re: "Laments terms" for "Layman's terms"

Welcome, Pete. As a non-Facebooker, I can’t see the example you mentioned in your first post. Can you copy and paste it into a new or revised post? Thanks!


Feeling quite combobulated.

Offline

 

#4 2008-09-11 03:25:59

PeteMella
Member
Registered: 2008-09-10
Posts: 9

Re: "Laments terms" for "Layman's terms"

I’ve edited the original post accordingly.

What I really like is the assumption that the original answer is somehow too complicated or jargon-filled for laymen (or “laments”!) to understand!

Pete

Last edited by PeteMella (2008-09-11 03:26:56)

Offline

 

#5 2008-09-11 12:49:25

JonW719
Eggcornista
From: Colorado
Registered: 2007-09-05
Posts: 285

Re: "Laments terms" for "Layman's terms"

Thanks, Pete. I loved the the next poster asked “WTF are lament’s terms?” :-) I am sort of assuming this is a mispelling and that the poster doesn’t think the word is pronounced “luh-MENT’s.” An ear spelling perhaps? Or perhaps the person has read the word lament but mispronounced it as LAY-muhnt.


Feeling quite combobulated.

Offline

 

#6 2008-09-11 15:34:00

Chris Waigl
Eggcorn Faerie
From: London, UK
Registered: 2005-10-14
Posts: 115
Website

Re: "Laments terms" for "Layman's terms"

This one’s quite astonishing. We have, of course, in lame man’s terms—one of my early favourites. I’ll see that it gets a lamentable companion as soon as I get to it.

Offline

 

#7 2008-09-12 03:27:42

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

Re: "Laments terms" for "Layman's terms"

I really like this one, too, but I’m wondering whether it’s truly an eggcorn—what’s the semantic justification here?

Offline

 

#8 2008-09-12 04:17:45

PeteMella
Member
Registered: 2008-09-10
Posts: 9

Re: "Laments terms" for "Layman's terms"

I was wondering that too, on reflection. It does sound like someone may have purely heard the phrase “laymen’s terms” while being unfamiliar with the term “laymen”, filling in their own idea of what the word should be.

The only possible idea I can think of semantically is that someone may express some kind of lamentful regret at “dumbing down” their language (patronising, but no more than “lame man’s terms”!). This is clutching at straws a bit, though, and I suspect it’s just someone being a bit thick.

Offline

 

Board footer

Powered by PunBB
PunBB is © 2002–2005 Rickard Andersson
Individual posters retain the copyright to their posts.

RSS feeds: active topicsall new posts