Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
“Bode†is familiar to most of us only in the phrases “bodes ill/well for,†so it’s ripe for eggcorning. “Boards†for “bodes†seems like a predictable substitution for some non-rhotic speakers, and it may or may not make a certain degree of sense. This one’s a bit interesting; I find the semantic connections hard to pin down, but probably 90% of the instances were on investment websites – that surprising concentration (a good deal higher than for “bodes well”) suggests that the writers may have had a particular image in mind. I wondered whether they were thinking of those other Wall Street uses of “board†– esp. referring to the “Big Board†or the “boards†of the New York Stock Exchange. Perhaps the idea is that a certain positive indicator suggests that a stock will do well on the “Board†in the future. Maybe others more familiar with the world of investment will have better ideas. Examples:
Growth continues to be led by Co.’s top 20 customers, which are up over 20% for 1H04 and which boards well for continued growth in this business.
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/su … 326172_ITM
First, we are seeing a real advancement in HDTV along with technical improvements in digital displays we are seeing significant retail price reductions which could board well for consumer adoption.
http://www.thelion.com/bin/forum.cgi?sf=DLB&msg=8&cmd=n
With overall GDP performance for Q2 and expected Q3 performance that will board well for Libbey as we look into next year.
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/su … 334650_ITM
From transcriptions, so it’s not clear the speakers intended “board(s)â€:
So I think that we feel pretty excited about these thing that we are doing. We have a very cohesive holiday statement this year and I think that the gift able assortment as well as the reinvention of our sleepwear assortments will board well for us for holiday.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/92074-l … ipt?page=6
So with some of that coming back in the third quarter, that does give us some newer guarantees list plus the RMX actually had jump in its growth rate; it’s falling very quickly, which boards well as well in cycle of things.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/85364-p … ipt?page=7
[There were a number of other transcribed examples on the Seeking Alpha website – it may be just one transcriber there who favors this reshaping.]
The following one may be malapropic. It’s possible that the writer meant something like “bodes well,†but “agrees, accords†actually seems to work better in context:
So I ran the analysis again(in my last run my input file had
damping included, which was the reason why the results were
different..sorry about that!), constraining/not constraining the
FLUID30’s(which are not in contact with the structure) and got
the same results, which boards well with my understanding!
http://x.ansys.net/posting/68838
There’s also “boats well for,†which I find a little less interesting because I worry that it’s simply a metaphor of motion into the future – which loses a lot of the connotations of “signs/portents†that are implicit in “bode†and at least suggested in “board.†Still, with positive examples, at least, perhaps there’s an implication of “smooth sailing ahead†or something like that – though that seems a bit too subtle to me. “Boats” is rarer and—interestingly—shows up much less often in financial contexts. Examples:
That boats well for the rest of your time there!
http://brolaw.blogspot.com/2006/08/ther … lowns.html
I really think they are playing quick, especially on the sides.That boats well for players like Federer, Nalbandian, etc.
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthre … 3&t=173325
we tried crabs on a couple of spots looking to see if we find some black fish – nothing doing at the first 2 and that boated well for me since i had a few very nice size seabass today.
http://www.noreast.com/postedreports/vi … &daysold=7
[could be a pun given the context, but my guess is that it’s authentic]
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Is “boarding,” in the sense of “room and board,” a possible semantic link? “To board well” might mean to eat high on the hog. And a good meal always bodes well.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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“From transcriptions, so it’s not clear the speakers intended “board(s)â€:”
But the transcribers clearly did, so I think this is acceptable (maybe more than acceptable) documentation for eggcornicity.
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Well, I’ve talked about my hesitation to use transcripted evidence in other posts. My problem is that reshapings in transcriptions sometimes seem to have a pattern of occurrence all their own. I’ve posted before about reshapings for which all or nearly all of the evidence I could find was from transcriptions, and that gives me pause. I think substitutions in transcription may sometimes have different cognitive origins than those in other kinds of writing on the Web. I assume many transcribers are doing that kind of work for a living 8 hours a day, and that they do it very quickly and automatically—often transcribing a word as it comes up, rather than listening to the whole context of the phrase before writing. That’s the only explanation I can find to make sense of some of the stuff I’ve seen. So I’m uncomfortable with most transcribed evidence that isn’t “bracketed.”
In this particular case, however, I think my punctilious qualification may not be as necessary. I believe there’s a person working for seekingalpha.com who’s absolutely convinced that “boards well for” is the standard form of the phrase. And more power to them….
Last edited by patschwieterman (2008-09-30 23:11:07)
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The word bode has a predictive implication, being more or less synonymous with augur. But, bode being an unfamiliar word to most, there are lots of examples of people’s using it with other meanings in mind. For instance, to some it apparently means agree or accord:
And yet you’re the one falsely reporting people… go figure. That doesn’t bode very well with CBM guidelines now, does it?
comic book movie discussion
To others, bode well means something like go down well, be received well, please:
Matt’s girl-chasing, rock-n-roll ways didn’t bode well with his conservative father… leading to a lot of fights.
TV discussion
In fact, that misunderstanding seems to be the most popular response when people ask what bode means on some Q&A sites:
Best Answer: “It didn’t bode well” just means that something didn’t go over too well with a person, when someone didn’t approve, or like, something.
Q&A site
These substitutions aren’t eggcorns, as there’s no pronunciation similarity between bode and, say, augur or please, but they’re interesting, and apparently very widespread, misunderstandings.
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