Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
In its technical uses, the term “creosote†is a 19th C coinage that refers to distillates of wood-tar or coal-tar; for most of us it’s probably best-known as a wood preservative – that black sticky stuff on railroad ties and telephone poles. The meaning of the term has also been extended to include the soot that builds up inside chimney flues. As a result, the conflation of “creosote†and “soot†was probably inevitable. (Could the similarity in sound to “soot†have driven the expansion of the word’s definition in the first place? Unlikely, I think, but not impossible.)
This is hard to count—“creosoot†is apparently the standard spelling in Dutch—but it’s not too common in English. Examples:
I have been burning pine for years and I see no difference in the creosoot build up between pine and hardwood, and the pine is free.
http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/ … p?t=220169
Help reduce or get rid of the creosoot build up?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index … 350AAhxgVC
I have had the Biasi 3 wood reccomended to me but some people have told me it will create a lot of creosoot in my chimney.
http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.ph … 93/#190618
Even my customers with wood burning stoves or frequently use their fireplaces often when I suggest a method of creosoot removal when they have a problem they often squell about the price.
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/wampsvi … 2GLIHQDD07
[I think the sages at Language Log might also consider this an example of WTF coordination. And “squell�]
One of our last rides had a bridge that was made out of old railroad timbers for footing, with gaps that were over an inch between logs, kind of greasy with creosoot and it was a covered bridge on top of it!!
http://gaitedhorses.net/forum/index.php?topic=1219.30
[In this case, the writer really is referring to “creosote†in the restricted sense.]
There’s mention of a much queerer reshaping of “creosote” here: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=1640
Last edited by patschwieterman (2009-04-23 00:32:55)
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A jewel of an eggcorn.
The word “creosote” is often misspelled as “creasote,” so the eggcorn “creasoot” also turns up. “Creasoot” is a possible double-yolker. Poor combustion in a stove creates soot that builds up as “creasoot.”
There are a few examples of “creosoak,” which is probably another eggcorn, since most people know creosote as a soaking solution for wood.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Very nice eggcorn. The Online Etymological Dictionary clears up the confusion around the origin of the word creosote, which is an esoteric word. The “natural philosopher” Carl Ludwig, Baron Reichenbach (1788–1869) was the first to isolate the stuff (it’s not a unique product but a heterogeneous fraction derived by distillation). He coined the word from Gk. kreo-, comb. form of kreas “flesh” + soter “preserver,” from soizein “save, preserve.” The flesh-saving aspect came from its use as an antiseptic (this was before the germ theory of disease had been developed). Looking for kreas on the web leads to kreas me patates or “meat and potatoes” in Greek cooking, so you can’t get much more basic than that.
Another common word based on kreas is pancreas, or “all flesh”. This goes back to before Homer in the 8th c. BC, where it meant any edible meat. It was later restricted to the organ, which apparently has a “meaty” texture (link). Finally, on the technical side, chemical energy in the muscles is stored in the molecule creatine. The breakdown product creatinine must be cleared by the kidneys if it is not to build up, and thus a creatinine clearance test is an assay of kidney function.
Soter is the Greek word for saviour. It is the last letter in the Greek acronym Ichthys or Ichthus (Greek: ἰχθÏÏ‚, capitalized ΙΧΘΥΣ or ΙΧΘΥC) which is the “Jesus fish” (link).
Finally, I just wanted to add the following googlenonce to the above: creosuit for a smart layer of creosoot.
Chimney construction trees & trailer leveling service
... costly repairs and make the chimney safer by reducing flamable creosuit deposits in there chimney and reducing the risk of a chimney fire or explosion .
(snippet from journals.aol.com/trcntychmny/HasYourChimneyBeenSweptInspected/entries/2005/01/24/chimney-construction-trees—trailer)
And no, esoteric is not related to creosote.
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Burred—What was the dispute over the origin of “creosote”? I couldn’t find a mention of it on the Online Etymological Dictionary site.
The OxED’s etymological note does seem to take Reichenbach to task for his Greek, but I didn’t post it since I’m not competent to critique their critique. Here’s what they say about his neologism: “[T]he formation was intended to mean ‘flesh-saving’; but the Gr. for this would have been κÏεο(σ)σόος.â€
When I was reading up on creosote before my post, I also ran into a claim on the website of a British creosote vendor that seems to challenge the usual attribution of the material’s discovery to Reichenbach, instead bestowing that honor on, presumably, an unnamed Englishman:
“The history of Creosote goes back till 1716 when in England a patent was granted for “oyle or spirit of tarr” to protect ship planks against decay. In nearly 300 years Creosote has been used as a wood preservative, it has amply proved its effectiveness.â€
http://www.hfstimber.co.uk/creosote-treated-timber.htm/
Again, I obviously can’t evaluate this – I have no idea whether that patent really exists or whether the material mentioned would be the same as Reichenbach’s creosote. And I don’t know how complex the distillation of creosote is, but perhaps it’s possible that Reichenbach duplicated in a systematic and controlled way a process others had earlier stumbled upon in a more haphazard fashion.
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Pat, sorry, it cleared up my confusion, I thought.
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