Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
she was just flouncing her power (said 2x)
His empire is on a level that most of us will only dream of reaching, but you don’t really see him flouncing his power around.
He is up there, flouncing his influence on TV, while I am labouring daily in court
This one is pretty clearly standard for the person I heard using it twice: the other two come from the Internet.
It is tied in with the flaunt/flout confusion discussed on a number of pages on this site. All three words, besides sounding alike and besides a “tossing something long and moveable” notion from the ideophonic ‘fl-’ quasi-prefix (cf. flick(er) flip flap flop flirt flutter, etc.), share at least in many usages the notion of playing dangerously, deliberately making a provocative show in such a way as to invite a potentially devastating response. Many quite typical transitive usages of “flounce†might well be blends of that word with “flauntâ€, in particular.
Surrounded by these and other enthralled suitors, I felt like Scarlett O’Hara flouncing her petticoats at the Twelve Oaks barbecue.
Running out of engaging conversation, she begins flouncing her boobs in his face.
I’m actually somewhat dubious of the eggcornhood of this one, precisely because in so many instances it may be, for the perpetrators themselves, a blend of the two words, both of which the perp may know. But I think the idea of flouncing your power around probably does constitute an eggcorn.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-02-08 20:53:11)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Since flouncing is almost never used in its true meaning, it’s an easy word to confuse. (I’m not sure exactly what flouncing looks like, despite having seen Gone with the Wind several times. Fiddle-dee-dee!)
Then there is the flaunt/flout confusion (discussed, briefly, here): http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=793
Mixups of flounce and flout are somewhat common as well:
India threaten to quit tour as race row turns into power struggle …Jan 8, 2008 … to be a four-match series, there is no excuse for their flagrant flouncing of authority which led to emotive scenes throughout India. ...
To Find the Truth by hopelesslyhopefulHow unsurprised I am to find you roaming the halls and flouncing authority. Something you inherited from your father, no doubt,†the looming figure of Snape …
www.mugglenet.com/~fanfiction/viewstory … &chapter=4 – 16k – Cached – Similar pages
Bad Girls – TWoP ForumsSo, in a sense, Helen is a lot more like Nikki than we see at first blush, flouncing authority . . . ok, now I’m just rambling. ...
forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3132400&st=1155 – 168k – Cached – Similar pages
Feeling quite combobulated.
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I had overlooked the following blend (collected 13 years ago)
people who flount the rules [spoken]
It also shows up in its thousands on the Internet:
All men are equal when they go out on that pitch and whoever you are If you flount the rules you have to go.
Churches Flount Breaking the Law by Endorsing Candidates. Why is the news media so casually stating that the presidential candidates are campaigning in
California county to flount marriage law—- sort of.
It’s like the saying goes “if you got flount itâ€. I don’t have it so I won’t flount it…lol Most of my friends have always been males so I know how males think.
People are clearly unclear in their minds about flout, flaunt, and flounce . Whether the resulting mixtures are sometimes eggcorns is the question for this forum, I guess.
.
A particularly fun example:
those who flaunt their rights and flount their responsibilities.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-02-09 11:28:48)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Occurs to me to wonder if “flouncing†meaning ‘flouting’ might not have some blendiferous influence from “trouncingâ€. The idea of putting to shame, (at least apparently) nullifying your opponent’s hegemony, is common to the two.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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“Flounce” is an English noun and verb, vintage 1500s and still current. It refers to a jerky, awkward motion, or a splash caused by such a motion in the water. The examples above of “flouncing petticoats” and “flouncing boobs” are not eggcorns or blends-they invoke a real word. When I was young we used an idiom based on this word, the phrase “flouncing around,” to describe a bad dance style.
But the examples of flouncing one’s power/influence must be eggcorns. Of the acorn “flaunt,” I would guess.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Yes, flounce is a real word, and means (to me) a kind of playful, lively or bouncy curved motion. It is not a smooth, efficient, straight-to-the-desired-position movement, to be sure, but I wouldn’t have thought of it as jerky or awkward. It’s related to the flounces (like ruffles) on a curtain or skirt, and is especially characteristic of a girl or woman wearing a fullish skirt and making it swish back and forth by the motion. It is often associated with dancing, as you note. I was not aware of splashing in water being called flouncing—be interested to see an example or two. Flouncing is also sometimes a kind of petulant or angry, somewhat childish motion: to flounce your way angrily out of the room.
The dictionary I checked listed as the only transitive verb flounce the meaning ‘trim (e.g. a curtain) with a flounce’. I think the transitive usage of flouncing your skirts is nevertheless pretty standard: I was surprised not to find it there.
Where I disagree with you is in the assumption that if it invokes a real word it cannot be an eggcorn or blend. A blend by definition invokes a real word (or morpheme, phrase, what-have-you)—in fact two. I think when people talk of a woman flouncing her skirt or boobs at susceptible males, the notions of flaunting (and perhaps taunting), and of flouting convention, are very likely to be highly active in both speakers’ and hearers’ minds, besides (not instead of) the kind of motion being described. This is a kind of blend, though it is like a hidden eggcorn in that nothing in the pronunciation of the word itself gives this away. It is, if you like, a blend at the semantic pole only, not (or not so clearly) at the phonological/orthographical pole: flount is a blend at both poles.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-02-11 08:42:54)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Out of curiosity, when is the last time any of us has heard “flounce” used in its Scarlet O’Hara/”Gone with the Wind” sense… (esp. spoken….) I couldn’t tell you the last time I heard it. It’s a real word, and it’s current in the sense that it’s not considered archaic, but it definitely is falling or has fallen out of favor with the current generation (again: when used properly, vs. used improperly to mean flout or flaunt).
Feeling quite combobulated.
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David Tuggy wrote:
It is often associated with dancing, as you note. I was not aware of splashing in water being called flouncing—be interested to see an example or two.
Like Kem, I have a strong association between flouncing and splashing. And other people do, too. No time to post examples this morning, but here’s a link to a Google search for “flouncing in the waterâ€:
One thing that surprised me about that search was how often people associated flouncing specifically with fish. So here’s a search for “fish flouncingâ€:
Apparently fish can “flounce” even when they’re not in the water, so for a few speakers at least creating a splash doesn’t seem necessary for the use of “flounce.”
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For the record, “flounce” meaning an awkward, jerking motion and the “flounce” on a square-dance skirt may not be etymologically related. The fabric “flounce” is an alteration of an earlier “frounce,” meaning a pleat or wrinkle, says the OED. The OED does not know the origin of the motion word.
I agree, Jon (Is that your name or just part of your handle?), the motion verb seems to be on the way out of English. It has a healthy niche use, though, in some types of erotica. Most people would understand “flouncing around in a bikini,” I think. And a single TV episode has single-handedly resuscitated the phrase “flouncing around on a dance floor.” See Elaine define “flounce” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xi4O1yi6b0
As for the claim, David, that something can be called an eggcorn when it (1) assumes the orthography and pronunciation of a legitimate English word and (2) is used in a context appropriate for that word, I beg to differ. “Influences at the semantic pole” are ubiquitous in English. Prying out such influences is a fun exercise, and you have a special gift for this kind of investigation. But these influences only reproduce a small part of what goes into an eggcorn. Even calling them “hidden eggcorns” seems to be a stretch. Hidden eggcorns happen when one meaning of a word is substituted for another (e.g., the “boxing” in “Boxing Day” referring to boxes, pugilism, or emcompassing). “Flouncing” in the phrase “a woman flouncing her skirt” might be a hidden eggcorn if the speaker had in mind the fabric frill called a “flounce,” but to say that it is a hidden eggcorn because the word “flouncing” is semantically influenced by “flount” (which it may well be) is to empty the phrase “hidden eggcorn” of all meaning. “Flouncing” is semantically influenced by every English noun, verb, adjective and adverb that occurs in speech contexts with it.
Last edited by kem (2009-02-10 13:23:40)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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I didn’t say they were eggcorns (hidden or otherwise); I suggested they might be (hidden) blends. Like you, I would require quite a bit more evidence/information before I’d be willing to assert that they were eggcorns. (E.g. I would need evidence that the speaker really did not know the word “flounceâ€, and such evidence would be pretty hard to come by.)
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-02-11 08:40:08)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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It occurred to me last night that the word flounder shares the meanings of “a jerky, awkward motion†and “such a motion in the waterâ€â€”it is, after all, the name of a fish. Might it be affecting things in some of the cases we’ve been discussing?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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David Tuggy wrote:
It occurred to me last night that the word flounder shares the meanings of “a jerky, awkward motion†and “such a motion in the waterâ€â€”it is, after all, the name of a fish. Might it be affecting things in some of the cases we’ve been discussing?
Influence between the two words certainly seems like a possibility, though trying to prove that—or determine which way the influence went—could be tricky. A couple of quick checks of Books.google.com show that “flouncing in the water” has been around in literary usage since at least the late 18th C and was employed by people like Kipling and Audubon. In fact it looks like this is a usage that was more common in the 19th C than today, though I haven’t done enough checking to be sure of that.
In any case, for me they have different senses. Someone flouncing in the surf is probably having fun. Someone floundering in the surf probably needs a lifeguard.
Last edited by patschwieterman (2009-02-11 12:44:51)
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This whole subject is tied up with the “sound symbolic†or “ideophonic†kind of phenomenon. fl got mentioned above; ounce too seems to have a bit of the same character. It means something like ‘a quick short-trajectoried, usu. immediately reversed motion’ in flounce, bounce, pounce, jounce, trounce
.
Re flount, here are two usages where it seems to mean ‘flounce’ and ‘tout’ (or ‘flog’ in the sense of ‘try to sell’?):
They with their super-short mini-skirts, flounting around like nobody’s business? Der, once they start with the lyrics, they’ll go
on to image and what-nots
Why do you keep flounting Hilery Clinton on the markets like she has already won the election? There is other Democrats and Republicans that
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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