Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
(I know there must be a way of giving ‘bete’ its circumflex but I’ve no idea how to do so – please just assume it’s there.) There must be many English speakers unacquainted with even schoolboy French and yet the language is rich with French words and expressions, many of which invite eggcornish interpretation. ‘Bait’ suggests the torment and harassment a bete noire may provide, though examples are scarce, unlike the uneggcornish ‘bate’ variant. ‘Bet noir’ too could be seen as a little eggcornish I suppose, perhaps influenced by ‘film noir’?
This monstrously beguiling piece of legerdemain provides the perfect contra temp or bait noir or negative focus for my current book project on justice in …
Naturally, our occasional bait noir, la feminista found it impossible to allow this chauvinistic calumny to go unchallenged: ...
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There might be an element of another signification to bait in play here, as in to bait someone. So a bait noir would be an irritating challenge, an intentional provocation. There are multiple instances of “bet noir” out there too, as you say – I think the odds are good that this is a nice eggcorn.
I couldn’t resist the temptation that your bait noir posed, to do a bit more fishing. There are multiple instances of “bate noire”, at 195 raw hits, but it’s hard to see the connection to bate, as in, to moderate. Also, the ê in bête is easily mistaken for the a in bate, so it’s a natural egg freckle (to get an e circumflex, use alt-136). The following probable egg freckle led me further, however:
Time magazine:
Of course, everybody has his bate noire, his black pet, in the series.
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic … 44,00.html)
Pet noire! Is this like a pet peeve? 415 raw hits, though many are intentional puns.
Somali news blog:
Their former tormenter and pet noire, “President†Riyale, not one to be left out of the act, has also shamelessly joined the spree as one of their born-again fans.
(http://www.alldalka.com/News-copy(1)_copy(15).htm)
Jihad watch:
Of course, with Leftist supporters of this dogma, we quickly run into incoherent self-contradictions, since they are so quick to denigrate as inferior many aspects of Judaeo-Christian culture, and even modern secular Western culture, in comparison with their pet noire, the Third World Noble Savage.
(http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/a … 008406.php)
Bemoaning the need for the area code 020 in London:
A big pet noire for me – 020 shite.
(http://www.stroudgreen.org/discussion/873/is-the-site/)
Pet noire apparently appears in British comedian Victoria Wood’s work, specifically in Mens Sana In Thingummy Doodah, so that it is described several times as (copyright Victoria Wood).
(http://www.123pricecheck.com/Product-28 … sents.html)
“Bite noire” poses a problem because it is a crude expression in French – don’t go there. Related to Monty Python’s “the nasty bits”. I braved the waters for you, only to be confronted with the evidence that bête noire is a bête noire for OCR (e.g. http://books.google.ca/books?id=XZedCMA … t&resnum=2). OCR chooses either bate or bite for bête. Many, most or all of the examples found were silicisms, and sifting through for any true reshapings of bête noire would be a nightmare.
Last edited by burred (2009-04-12 15:13:09)
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I was frequently lost in the old landscape but having been away for only a few weeks I return to find an even stranger new one populated by silicisms, freckled tuttles, darkling yelts et al. I need a glossary, wedged firmly at the top of the Eggcornology section perhaps.
If burred was a dog and you threw a little stick for him to fetch he’d haul back a bloody great tree, roots and all. (This, I scarcely need add, is a very good thing.)
And thanks for the key-tapping tips – I need all the help I can get.
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Peter, I know. I started immediately last week to put together a table of those terms. To begin, I was building a meticulous account of the “fool sweep”, intricate, and yet soaring, tying all the loose ends together, getting a bit too long, when – pfffft – it all vanished into waste heat. At least I think that’s what happened. I did learn not to build long responses directly on this forum. I took it as a sign to sleep on it a few more days.
I removed from my bio the information that might go some way to explaining why I’m everywhere you look, who-ordered-the epidemic on this forum lately – redirected, playing-hooky energy due to being on strike, which is going into its 4th or 5th week, I’m not sure any more. Plus the sheer pleasure of it.
When the table is put together, I vow, then all of these terms can be examined and reconsidered, and those that are not useful can remain pinned there. Meanwhile I’m deliberately taking some of them for a spin around the block just to see how they ride. Many of them won’t be useful except as under-the-breath imprecations.
You should be wary. I seem to love to generate new categories of eggcorn-hunting-misfires-to-curse. For example, I’ve been sucked in several times by trolls in Yahoo Answers, who deliberately post mangled questions, for their own twisted ends. They’re my bait noir.
Last edited by burred (2009-04-13 12:00:56)
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