Eggcorn Forum

In my newspaper today:

Newsday, Feb. 4, 2009, a story by Kathleen Kerr titled “Fire Marshal Tells of Faulty Wiring”

Fire Marshal Raymond Ott was responding to questions from Bronx Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Glucksman, who repeatedly asked for details about faulty, Gerry-rigged electrical wiring in a third-floor apartment in the Tremont section of the borough.

I know that there is a real copyediting desk at Newsday, and I’ve known several people who’ve worked on it over the years, and they were certainly experienced. So this is not a mistake made by an unskilled person—the capital letter is there because someone thinks this should be a proper noun.

(Maybe they think bad electricians might be named Gerry?)

Of course, it would be easy for people to think that Jerry-built or Jerry-rigged should have proper-noun connections. And indeed, my dictionary says the 1869 term is of origins unknown, so perhaps it’s possible there was a bozo named Jerry somewhere shortly before that time, and his name got attached.

It’s hard to search on this, of course, and I don’t have time to peruse all of them. But I see a few cases where the G is capped in a way that would be consistent w/ proper-noun status.