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
A pigsty is where pigs stay. “Stay†and “sty†aren’t related etymologically; the OED thinks that “sty†is probably the same root that gives us the first syllable of “steward†(from late Old English “sti-weard†– probably meaning “keeper of the house/hall”). This reshaping gets many hundreds of rghits, but most are references to the lyrics of “Oh My Golly†off the classic 1988 album Surfer Rosa by the Pixies. Subtracting those, I think it’s safe to say there are dozens of ugh out there. Examples:
And I really hate when my friends come and turn my room into a pigstay.
http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1283478.aspx
This house was originally built to meet the demands of the 19th-century autarkical way of life; it is therefore most typical of the houses in the area: only one living room, one oven, a pigstay and a sheepfold.
http://www.best-of-perigord.tm.fr/commu … rd_uk.html
This ship stinks more than a pigstay, to say the least…
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=124611
My room on the second floor (that’s third to the American contingent) was basic, clean, spacious, cool, good shower room, decent enough mattress (maybe they’ve been reading the criticism on TA and bought some new ones). I opened the window and let Provence in for a bit, did a quick shower and change and went off for dinner leaving the place in a pigstay (I’m good at this).
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic- … vence.html
Autarkical? Yeah, I didn’t know it, either – but the OED’s on the case; here’s their definition for “autarkicâ€:
Of, pertaining to, or characterized by autarky; (economically) self-sufficient.
It’s apparently still in use.
Offline
This one is perfect. Do you think it might have developed in places where “sty” and “stay” are homonyms?
Offline
I was wondering about that, but realized that I didn’t know enough about dialectal phonology to know whether they were homophones anywhere. Are they?
One writer is from the UK, and one is from India; that’s about all I could find out about the authors of my excerpts.
Offline
Looking into it a bit, I don’t think any but the very broadest accents would pronounce sty and stay identically. But certainly the Australian —Strine— accent moves them closer together. Aussies apparently move the long a vowels the farthest towards the long i on the IPA vowel chart; don’t ask me to reproduce the phonetics in any alphabet invented since 1960. A demonstration of the similarity between “fine” and “face” for different dialects can be found at the fonetiks site although there is a greater difference indicated at this Australian transcription course site. Again, I’m sure it varies a great deal from place to place within the country. You can find dozens of instances of “pig stay” as a place for pigs, from Australian sites; the multiple instances from elsewhere have me stymied.
Offline
More on “pig style” here: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … p?pid=5419
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
Offline