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Chris -- 2018-04-11
The eggcorn database already contains the dust-up between raucous and ruckus (http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/946/raucous/). But what about “rockous†for “raucous?†Or even “rockous†for “ruckus.†Something “rock-ous†might be noisy like rocks in a tin can. Or rough like a rocky road. Or loud like a rock band.
It’s hard to get an accurate count of how often this eggcorn occurs on the net. Many of the best examples occur in the context of a discussion of rock music. Such as this one:
Review of Paul McCartney DVD: “This collection of 20 songs from his ‘89-90 world tour is the ultimate! He rocks, plain and simple, from the ever-great ‘Band On The Run’ to the rockous early day remembrance ‘I Saw Her Standing There.’†(http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B0006FFRT8)
Is the writer making a pun, saying that McCartney’s early music was both raucous and rock music? I don’t know. The writer could also be coining a word: “rock-ous†instead of “folk-ish.†I’m sure some of these hundreds of musical examples are genuine eggcorns and not puns, but sorting them out is impossible.
Anyway, here are a few examples of the “raucous/rockous†substitution that do not occur in the context of a musical performance:
News summary: “Game 1 saw two contrasting style of basketball meet head-to-head, two super-stars find vastly different results, and some late game heroics. Will Norton breaks down the Celtics victory in front of a rockous Boston Garden crowd. †(http://tinyurl.com/6hswmu)
Comment on a video: “...together with LB who is now on the SG position because of Dragic’s arrival (he used to be the back-up of Stve) can put some intensity and quite a rockous crowd when they are on away from home court..they are both fast.†(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ70g2_vkas)
Post on a sailing site: “The first Seattle Sailing Meetup is going on right now. Its pretty loud and rockous, but unfortunately its not beause of the Meetup.†(http://shipsrecord.com/blogs/patrick/ar … 05/07.aspx)
Last edited by kem (2008-12-01 13:01:02)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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I think, but I can’t be sure, that when I first heard the word ‘raucus’ I associated it with the verb ‘roar’, perhaps a blend of ‘caucus’ and ‘roar’, although I’m pretty sure caucus would have been even more wildly unfamiliar at the time. Anyway, googling ‘roarcus’ yields very few examples, a mark of distinction in my new system of preference:
What, no roarcus, drunken, naked, debauchery! So it was in fact a nice evening out. Day 14, going strong. But heading back to flat on Monday, that could be …
I think it would have been time for a large roarcus barbecue with plenty of wine and beer tasting and a late night karaoke competition to …
U’re gonna see a big Luxury bus coming in from Debin!! filled with roarcus bikers who have been up since the crack of dawn…...... there will be 30 of us! ...
Oh what? Was you and Mark being loud n roarcus! Singing Oh dear look what they’ ve done to the blues, blues, and bluezzzzz …
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Riffing on Peter’s contribution, I found 20 ughits for “roarcous.” Probably mostly puns—esp. when it refers to roaring crowds in sports columns—but some look quite authentic.
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