Eggcorn Forum

Speakers of English employ the phrases “a trace of” and “no trace of” to refer to the measurement of small (trace) amounts. We might say, for example, that “the breathalyzer showed no trace of alcohol in the defendant at the time of the accident.”

The near-homophone “no traits of” also has its place in the language. We could claim, for example, that “the losing horse showed no traits of its famous sire.” The meanings of the two phrases are analogous. But they are not always interchangeable: when we use “no traits of,” the issue at hand is not small amounts, but quantized characteristics (traits).

There are times, however, that the expression “no traits of” shows more than a trace of dependence on the “small amounts” connotations of “no trace of.” Google reports about two hundred ughits for “no traits of,” and about ten or twenty percent of these, I would estimate, are eggcorns of “no trace of.”

The following five examples seem to be confounding “no traits of” and “no trace of.”

Post on Iranian bulletin board: “For him to hang and execute drug dealers was a great accomplishment. While he was doing that and for a very long time after that, there were no traits of drug dealings in Iran”

Post on forum discussing Philadelphia: “Then there is a second tier of working class [neighbor]hoods that…have no traits of a ghetto.”

Forum thread on fish, discussing whether a certain breed is naturally without tails or whether the tails have been removed: “i see no traits of cutting whats so ever”

Post discussing a news report about a college student who died: “she had no traits of any controled substances in the system”

Op-ed on MSN about child actors from India: “He has shown no traits of shyness before the camera or the bright lights reflected with huge mirrors.”

Last edited by kem (2009-03-29 11:45:58)