Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Because “brunt” is a rare word outside of expressions like “bear the brunt,” some people substitute the seemingly logical “blunt.” It’s the wrong part of speech but it makes a sort of sense to think you might be hit with something blunt.
“CHILDREN BEAR THE BLUNT OF WAR IN NORTHERN UGANDA.”
Access My Library
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/su … 709834_ITM
“ACT VETERANS TO BEAR THE BLUNT OF MORE GOVERNMENT COST-CUTTING”
Liberal Party of Australia
http://www.liberal.org.au/news.php?Id=1334
“Report which strives to dispell the truths behind the “not in my backyard” environmental ploys, and offers reasons why poorer communities often bear the blunt of hazardous waste disposal.”
Open Directory Project
http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Issues/Envi … l_Justice/
A very few people come up with “bear the bunt”:
“Even in the Israel, you never see the leaders get hurt – it’s always Israeli or Palistinian civillians who bear the bunt of the war.”
https://forum.poppies.org/lofiversion/i … 10562.html
I suspect this is a simple typo.
Here’s an interesting valid use of the phrase “bear the bunt” in which “bunt” should be capitalized “Bunt” as the name of a caste:
“Regarding helping christians during this time. I am not sure if you have read about several christian families protected by the local hindus, namely the bunts. There are a number of christian families that still bear the bunt surname/family name even till date.”
http://mangalorean.com/browsearticles.p … cleid=1363
Paul Brians
Common Errors in English
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/
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There’s also the picture of hitting someone “with the blunt of the sword” (i.e., the flat side). I’m not sure how common this is in modern English. More current would the expression in detective fiction about “a large blunt object.” In any case, something eggcornish seems to be happening.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Nice find. And with 800+ ghits, it’s pretty likely that it’s standard for a good many.
An interesting example where “blunt†is an adjective and there’s blending going on:
the taxpayers will bear the blunt force.
Related are a bunch of usages where “brunt†is used for “butt†or “targetâ€:
some of you have been the brunt of that. [pressure]
But how can husbands feel respected, appreciated, or loved when they are the constant brunt of their wives’ negativity about everything?
When I assured her that Lucius was the brunt of jealous gossip, she believed me.
Perhaps [X] and [Y] have become the brunt of some isolated attack or personal vendetta
He was the brunt of all our jokes.
Other interesting usages of brunt :
He’s the brunt of this outfit, and she’s the brains. [he, being brawny, bears the brunt of the grunt work?]
there are no times when you have to check back on what HTML was added by the software as there is no extra HTML added, not unless you want there to be. The simple brunt of it is if you want a Professional piece of software for free, that won’t alter or corrupt your programming, [our program] is the one to get, simple.
I bet you I didn’t think you and I had that much creativity, did you?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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