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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
“Out of wedluck†is a scrambled eggcorn, having elements of both an idiom blend and an eggcorn.
Presumably many of the persons using “out of wedluck†are echoing the phrase “out of luck.†The idioms have semantic overlap: being born outside of the bonds of marriage is a strong indicator of present and future bad fortune in some societies. Others who use “out of wedluck†may simply be stumbling over the obsolete Old English “wedlock†and substituting the sound-alike “luck†for “lock.â€
The web has dozens of examples of this phrase. Three of them:
Ghana news site: “there’s been a lot of talk on the side and in the media about them having a baby out of wedluck †(http://www.modernghana.com/movie/3147/3 … focus.html)
Filipino site: “ [X] is a single fireman with a son born out of wedluck.†(http://divisoria.stores.yahoo.net/ikparinbkabo.html)
Post in response to a blog: “I like the Luxembourg royal family, I think the Duke and Duchess did a good job raising their children eventhough one of her sons had a child out of wedluck.†(http://celebrity-babies.com/2007/07/27/luxembourgs-gra/)
Myspace bio: “i am a business man i sell african batiques and owns one of the big store in ny and d.c i have a son out of wedluck ,his name is charlse†(http://www.myspace.com/53809134)
There are a few examples of “out of wedlack†on the web. An illegitimate child is indeed a product of “wedlack.†Prepending “out of†contradicts the implied meaning, but logical issues play small roles when it comes to verbal slips. An example:
A flame: “if you want to see the truth about these violent illegals, just stop at any Social Services 0ffice or Social Security office, they look like they just crossed the border, but still they take priority to get MEDICAL, FOOD STAMPS, MONETARY COMPENSATIONS each and every month for having so many children out of wedlack †(http://blogmeisterusa.mu.nu/archives/172645.php)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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kem wrote (regarding the seeming double-negative “out of wedlack”):
Prepending “out of†contradicts the implied meaning, but logical issues play small roles when it comes to verbal slips.
Actually, it makes sense again when you interpret “out of” as “because of”. For example, “She did it out of spite.”
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Good observation, Raymond.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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“Born out of wedlack” would be odd even if it were understood as “born because one’s parents lacked marital status.” But of course what we have in the example above is “having so many children out of wedlack,” where the focus is not on the offspring but on the parents. This is perhaps easier to make sense of, especially in a screed directed against those parents.
A “because of” sense fits more easily with “born out of wedluck,” though again it seems somehow opposite to “out of wedlock”.
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