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#1 2009-01-17 06:44:59

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1258

'circular society' for 'secular society'

Hundreds of hits but most refer to sustainable use and re-use of resources. Some, however, are clearly an eggcornish variant of ‘secular’ with a ‘circular society’ possibly being one which – compared to a society run on religious principles – goes round and round in circles, getting nowhere:

... in their mind, the conflict between the principles of the kingdom of God and the practices of circular society (often it is the same uncertainty that …

So to date a friend that doesnt share her “religious” belief in a circular society is a great sin. And did i say i was dating her, so every female friend to …

The worst “sin”, it seems, in America, is to be poor. .... The Catholic world is a completely different world from the circular society we live in today, ...

... delegation into the country and said Ghana is an open and circular society that respects diverse religions. He said the state and church existed for the …

... to looks the whole matter what cause? the social norms adapted (eg.in the west homosexuality is a norm in the church as well circular society )therefore …

... receiving strong and just punishments, while providing the right support to the victims, I believe we’re going to be an exhausted and circular society. ...

It’s a circular society with a downward spiral White poor face a similar situation in places like Appalacia due to their isolation from social opportunities …

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#2 2009-01-17 16:43:30

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

Re: 'circular society' for 'secular society'

A great find. I think there may be other ways people are justifying “circular,” as well. Evangelical Christians who deplore our secular society often portray it as “divorced,” “alienated,” or “closed off” from God, and this idea of circling our wagons and shutting out God may be part of the image for some users—we’re a Godless huddle.

This is one of those interesting reshapings where not every citation seems to be referring to the ostensible target phrase. A little more context for the last citation, for instance, shows that the speaker isn’t worried about the secular nature of society but rather the links between poverty and lack of access to a good education:

I believe the reason black people in this society do so poorly is because so many are born into an enviroment where success is stacked against them and failure is their only option. Rotten, underfunded schools, ghettos are closer related to prison life than avenues of positive opportunity. Illiteracy gets passed down from generation to generation. It’s a circular society with a downward spiral
http://perspectives.com/forums/view_top … to=4007471

Here, “circular society” has become a kind of shorthand for a culture that allows what many people call the “circle of poverty” (258k raw hits) to continue unchecked.

I wouldn’t call this latter use of the phrase an eggcorn of “secular society.”

Last edited by patschwieterman (2009-01-17 17:50:56)

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#3 2009-01-18 09:37:32

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2752
Website

Re: 'circular society' for 'secular society'

Collocations such as “circular pursuits” or “circular lifestyle” would fit the notion of “going round and round” better than “circular society.” I checked “circular pursuits”, and Šerendipity struck:

Similar to his many extra circular pursuits, Les’s practice is richly diverse. He is regarded as an expert in all real property matters

extra-circular pursuits. The Penn Kappa chapter hopes. to continue their excellence, while. maintaining a balanced mind, body and …

A nice malapropism (or Cupertino?) for “extra-curricular”. Maybe some eggcorn potential, though I don’t see anything clearly.
.
But … I did find one candidate, in the midst of some amazing theological gobbledegook (a “GodMath sermon” at http://www.angelfire.com/stars/windows/12.html :

God was of Heaven: Us according to Oneness. Yet of Heaven on Earth, and when Heaven comes into the Earth, that is when the Creator dwells among the created, the Creator of that which was given choice, therein becomes the Witness of the Witness. The Witness checked-on the works of God, and now God checks-on the works of the Witness. The Witness conquers God and God conquers the Witness, therein becoming the Witness, becoming equal (logic) as agreement reaches equilibrium. The Creative un-equilibrium is then of continuing goodly conquering, not of the domain of the Witness (logic) as much as the domain of the Creative (Faith) leading else the linear ascension devolve to helical or circular pursuits: foolish ways of the world. Jesus Christ (linear) came into world (circular or helical at best) to divide the circularity 2 against 3.¶ In other words, given a tape measure, if You use it to make a circle with a circumference 10” long, and then You measure along the circumference a length of 12”, then is more than 1 revolution. It is 2” extra inches of overlap. Changing the circle so that the point at 10 and the point at 12 match with helical repositioning, there is no longer overlap: no longer waste. Jesus made 2 and 3, that is Jesus removed the circle to form more linear helical, matching 2 to 3, creating 2 with 3 inclusive. It is Oneness.

Wow! But anyway, “helical or circular pursuits: foolish ways of the world” seems pretty clear that circularity and secularity were both in mind. It’s possible of course that it is a sort of pun or rhetorical trope rather than the author really thinking they were the same word.
.
There are plenty of cases of “circular lifestyle” which clearly mean “going in a circle”, but most are not at all clearly substituting for “secular”:

I’m growing really sick of my hometown and I feel like I’m in a circular lifestyle going nowhere, so I’ve been contemplating moving

viewed as a conspiracy by the Department of Transportation to impose a circular lifestyle on a straight-shooting people.

(I didn’t have time to check through them all to see if there were better candidates.)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#4 2009-01-18 11:22:10

Peter Forster
Eggcornista
From: UK
Registered: 2006-09-06
Posts: 1258

Re: 'circular society' for 'secular society'

Pat: the last two examples I gave were deliberately chosen as interesting deviations – a habit I picked up from you to the best of my poor recollection – so I’m glad you had time to explore one of them.
While reading David’s post two other even more obviously eggcornish or otherwise curious candidates came to mind: ‘sectular’ and ‘sexular.’ The latter could clearly be a typo, but surely not the former:

This country has been headed away from being a Christian Nation to a very Liberal Multi Cultural Sectular Country.. I Wonder if God has chosen to punnish us …

Should sectular adoption agencies be allowed to deny religious families the right to adopt from them? Should the rastefarian churches be …

The evolution/scientist/sectular coalition have taken it to a different forum, the court, to sweep away the gains the “God” side has made in school board …

Born and raised in Dallas,( Oak Cliff) ,Texas, he grew up not being able to listen to what was called then as sectular music. So to compensate he made up …

or

why dont u get som christian songs? they’re all sexular(howevr u spell that)i listen 2 christian music and i’m so sick of all these sexular songs. sum of os …

The culture of THIS country has been moulded over centuries, and even though we are now a sexular country we still have a bunch of …

If I’m re-elected and not ousted by some fancy “book-learnin’ elitest, sexular- humanest”, I plege to get you those things, God willing. ...

The insidious work of the Catholic Church to undermine sexular and historical values across Europe and elsewhere should be brought to account whereever and …

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#5 2009-04-01 23:18:56

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

Re: 'circular society' for 'secular society'

After hearing somone use the word on the radio today, I rounded up these examples before I saw your post documenting these nice discoveries, Peter, I swear! I’m including those here that reinforce the case for sexular music as a true eggcorn and not merely a typo (95 ughits):

Teen religious forum
Can sexular music drive poeple to rapped/muder?

Comment on Youtube video of Ethiopian religious singer
okay but they aren’t praying..they are praising and worshping God And this is not the same as any sexular music such as Hip-hop and rap.

Blog site, description of the blogger’s musical tastes
Rock, rap r&b blues Well christain music i mean i ‘m not all for that cusn’n and sexular music ..

Music discussion board , on why a church objected to his video because “parents would be there”
I think that really if christians got more out of their little “bubbles” and just became real, they wouldn’t get so scared of the sexular world.

Well, ok, some are typos as the following demonstrates. But either these are Freudian or just really strangely coincidental typos.

Music site
Music Befumux 1800 has been presenting vocal and instrumental chamber music programs of scared and sexular music ranging from Medieval to early Classical for over 25 years.

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