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 may be merely a typo, and I know of only one instance, but if purposeful it surely qualifies a true, and not a demi, eggcorn. http://www.badscience.net/2008/06/all-t … st-pwnage/—you have to look pretty far down.
Offline
I’m convinced this one has merit. It’s very subtle without the word break, and a noteworthy find with it. (In the past I’ve referred to expressions having imagery shifts without a change of spelling as “stealth eggcorns,” and this is a perfect example of one). Nice find.
Offline
Welcome to the forum, roonyjwelch. The coiner of the term “demi-eggcorn” agrees with you—Arnold Zwicky entered “pain-staking” into the Eggcorns Database here: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/345/pain-staking/ (He also mentions the term in a Language Log post from early 2005.)
And thanks for the links to the fascinating research on evolution in E. coli—and the “controversy” that has accompanied it. Coincidentally enough, there’s an Eggcorns Database family link in there. The post you linked to also links to an article (described in your link as the “best lay coverage” on the research) written by Carl Zimmer—an excellent popular science writer who also happens to be the brother of Eggcorns Database gatekeeper and Language Log writer Ben Zimmer.
[Edit: Jorkel and I were apparently responding at the same time, so I hadn’t seen his post when I posted. The comments on the Database entry use the term “hidden eggcorn”—the Database founders’ equivalent to Joe’s “stealth eggcorn.”]
Last edited by patschwieterman (2008-07-02 14:34:27)
Offline
I have been spurred to resurrect this thread by encountering this eggcorn in a review of the movie “Rivers of a Lost Coast”: “It was a dirty, dangerous, pain-staking job that came to define the area’s culture and economics.”
Though this eggcorn has been discussed hereon more than once in the past, and is, in fact, on the Eggcorn Database list, I thought I’d bring it up for the enjoyment of those of you who may not have encountered this particular one before.
Dixon
Offline