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Chris -- 2025-05-10

#1 2006-07-06 23:43:11

armchairlinguist
Member
Registered: 2006-07-06
Posts: 1

breach vs breech

I was surprised not to see this one but perhaps because it’s not really an eggcorn?

“The memo follows a wave of high profile data thefts and major security breeches involving remote access or the theft of government laptop computers containing sensitive personal information.”
From http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/239

This could just be a phonetic substitution, but perhaps not. It also occurs in “once more into the breech” (reverse of the one I found). In that expression the two meanings are closer: the breech as the loading part of a gun and the breach as a gap or break both being things you can reasonably go/put things into. This could lead to substitution in other contexts.

There’s also a potential meaning pollination from breech birth, where a breech birth is upside-down, and so is security after a breach. But this is admittedly stretching it.

This page mentions that “more honored in the breach” is also frequently found in the other form.
http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/M04.html

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