Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
Some 14 kGh for this. Skipping past the first few Google pages, we see they’re mainly bona fide uses, including in books:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%2Bfie … t=140&sa=N
In fact, there are so many hits in Google Books, including some nineteenth-century ones, that I think it should be recognized as a variant. Not in the OED now though.
[Edited later: Apologies; I thought I always searched before submitting.]
Last edited by Oikolukija (2009-04-09 04:56:24)
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This is a good one that’s been suggested a few times; here’s a link to the earlier instances: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=2704
Back in 2005, Ken reported 5000+ hits. Now we’re at almost three times that. I’m not sure what that means, but this is clearly widespread in many registers.
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I thought it was a sort of poetic near synonym for fearsome, never mistook for that word. I’m rather surprised it’s not in the OED.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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