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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
The slang phrase “cold-cock†made its dayview in the early part of the twentieth century. To cold-cock a fellow is to knock him out, render him unconscious. The strange phrase has been a staple idiom in detective fiction. The exact imagery behind the phrase remains a mystery to word sleuths, but one can’t help but thinking that the phrase “out cold,†which was a common term by the time “cold-cock†was coined, had some influence.
For every thirty instances of “cold-cock†on the web you will find an instance of “cold-conk.†In most of the hundreds of web examples of “cold-conk†the writer appears to use it as an exact semantic replacement for “cold-cock.â€
Examples:
Synopsis of Three Stooges movie “When the Stooges are hired to keep a pro wrestler out of trouble, Curly ends up having to take his place in the ring after they accidentally cold-conk him.â€
Web fiction “In the confusion, he managed to cold conk the man and make it look totally accidental.â€
Sports forum “But he can guard your house and cold-conk any potential robbers.â€
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Make him cock up his toes by knocking him out cold?
.
Anyway, cold-conk works for me as an eggcorn.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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