Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
This would be another Annie Lehmann eggcorn:
Black patton leather (lower) and tan leather (upper), 3/4 leg height, with 3.5 inch heel, excellent condition (only woren one time), size 39.5 (Euro) / 8.5
Service styles have a range that can be described from High Class (i.e., champagne and caviar, Patton leather shoes, platinum-trim, etc.) to Casual (i.e., sodas and snacks, logo wear, brushed aluminum, etc.).
I remember one Halloween stumbling around in size thirteen blue Patton leather pumps arguing its overratedness with a whole garage full of party-goers
Military flight boots and dress shoes – [ Traducir esta página ] Patton leather dress shoes for service dress uniform size 9D Excellent condition.
This gets often repeated, indicating it is standard for at least some users. The contribution of “patent†to “patent leather†is not prominent to many of us, and the final t is almost inaudible in normal or fast speech. Most commonly either both words get capitalized or neither—and in those cases we are likely to be dealing with fading of the semantics of a component (=“loss of analyzabilityâ€) and pronunciation spelling. Still, regardless of capitalization but especially if only Patton is capitalized, for some users someone vague named Patton may be evoked, and for others General George himself.
.
Two connections with the General: (1) Military dress in general and bootshine in particular are supposed to be neat, and General Patton, if I remember correctly, was known for natty and somewhat flamboyant dress (his pearl-handled pistols are legendary). Patton leather is of course very shiny and dressy. (2) When I first found this usage (in 1998) an Internet search turned up a lot of BSM sites and things of that sort, some pretty nasty. Porn filters have been developed since then and I gladly use one, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there are still a lot of such pages out there. Patton’s iconic military status, and his reputation as “old blood and gutsâ€, fits in well in such contexts.
.
As is so often the case, where there is a very good semantic fit, and especially if sex is involved, you have to suspect at least occasional purposeful punning usage. But the number of apparently un-selfconscious usages make this less than probable for all cases.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-02-21 11:48:34)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline
Nice one.
‘Pattern leather’ is also common, but it gets confusing because many kinds of leather (e.g., from crocodiles, snakes and ostriches) really do come with a pattern.
Coffee Fashion Pattern Leather Shoe,Innovative and attractive color … XL0661-1 Black/White Fashion Pattern Leather Mens Shoe …
https://vss116.webhosting-secure.com/ka … m?PageNum_
There has been on Ebay of late a proliferation of high quality 1914 Pattern leather equipment for sale; some months ago a near complete set …
1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88522
Leather Work Gloves
Clute Pattern Leather Work Glove Economy shoulder split leather. ... Gunn Pattern Leather Work Glove Side split leather …
www.andersons-online.com/Products/Leath … _1011.html
Offline
Yes, patent leather is perhaps the least patterned of leathers.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline
Very nice discovery. I actually find “Patton leather” more credible than “pattern leather.”
I suppose we could refer to these as Annie Lehmann eggcorns. (Or perhaps we could find another individual to honor!) But while we’re on the topic of names… a while back I finally figured out that the name of an NPR newsperson was “Yuki Noguchi” and not something like “Luchina Gucci.” The former is a Japanese name… but my mind kept mishearing it and placing it into the category of an Italian name… albeit a flawed end product. (I suppose that’s the same dynamic when people took the Serbian originating Blagojevich and produced the Italian-sounding La Goyavich). These reshapings fit a familiar ethnic template in the utterers mind and offer a certain degree of universality. But since these particular mistakes are not widespread—or particularly profound—they’re more like personal eggcorns. Patton, on the other hand, is widely known …and symbolic… so I don’t know that we need to qualify an eggcorn with his name.
Offline
I find Luchina Gucci a totally fascinating eggcorn.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
Offline
I’m not nearly as stringent a hardliner on the issue of proper nouns as Kem, but I agree with him that they’re often problematic. In fact, I think the definition battles of Summer ‘08 led me to switch my vote on “Lehmann’s terms”—today I think I’d call it a very interesting non-eggcorn, worthy of interest in its own right. I like the fact that “Lehmann’s terms” has the same structural pattern as, say, “Boyle’s Law” or “Maxwell’s Demon” (Cynthax’s post on “The Second Law of Thermal Dynamics” probably inspired those examples). But none of us ever managed to provide a convincing link between “Lehmann’s terms” and the name Lehmann—no clear semantic link, so no clear eggcorn.
So I’d prefer not to lump this and “Penny Annie” into the same category as Lehmann’s. I think both your analysis and (esp.) your fourth example strongly suggest that there’s more to “Patton leather.”
As for “pattern leather shoes,” I suggested in my post on that reshaping that maybe people were thinking of the patterns of perforations that adorn some patent leather shoes.
Last edited by patschwieterman (2009-02-19 23:47:10)
Offline
edit: nevermind, I totally misread what someone was saying.
Last edited by Craig C Clarke (2009-02-20 11:08:23)
Offline
I’m with Pat on this-an interesting (and funny) non-eggcorn.
So we have a new kind of slip, an Annie Lehmann (but please, not Annie Lehmann eggcorns-few of them are decent eggcorns). I wonder if anyone, on Language Log or elsewhere, has looked into the phenomenon of inserting proper names into improper places? Our language processing mechanisms give us broad license us to do this, even when the names carry minimal semantic content. Are Annie Lehmanns just overextensions of the liberal adjectivization of proper names in English (e.g., Wilson’s warber, Kelly green, Hobson’s choice, Occam’s razor), or is something else going on?
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
Offline
Speaking of mis-placed proper names, it wasn’t until I read Peter Pan in the fourth grade that I learned that I didn’t keep my clothes in a Chester drawers.
Bruce
“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin
Offline