self-righteous » self-richeous

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Stop being such self richeous prigs and get on with the downloading. (zeropaid.com forum, October 28, 2002)
  • She is pretentious and self-richeous. (Amazon customer review, February 21, 2005)
  • I had a lady come up to me to offer the same self-richeous bullshit that is being offered out here. (Discover Vancouver Forum, Aug 9, 2005)
  • I believe Erica to be (in addition to the characteristics you suggest) also vindictive and self-richeous, and always ready to “pay someone back” for what [she believes] they’ve done to her. (rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc, Mar 14, 1997)

Seen on IRC today. About 300 occurrences on Google.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/10/14 |

beck » back

Chiefly in:   back and call

Classification: English – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • Now you can rest assured knowing that the most knowledgeable and experienced programmers are at your back end call all day, every day! 24h support from our “graveyard programmers World’s best programmers at your back and call! (link)
  • The privileges and comfort, money can buy, are yours at your back and call. (link)
  • I am told that if you do not have goons at your back and call, you simply cannot operate in the political field. (link)
  • I mean, you can’t honestly expect me to wait at your back and call for you to make yourself available, whenever that might be. (link)

David Storrs in #catalyst chatroom on irc.perl.org reported the usage of “at your back end call”. In response to the text David gave (the first portion of the first reference in “spotted in the wild”), HCoyote offered their analysis:
“No, they’re at your back…they’re about to bend you over and fuck you with sandy lube.”
I think another possibility is due to the terms of computer programming. Front end and back end are used to describe different aspects of a program, e.g., Swing (Java GUI) programming. As noticed in the first “spotted in the wild” entry, both “back end call” and “back and call” are used. Since “at his|her|my|their|your|its back end call” only has 25 ghits, all of which appear to be from web hosting companies, I think “back end call” is more of a pun for geeks, me being one.

However, the second spelling “back and call”, seems to be an eggcorn, and still fits the analysis by HCoyote. In gentler words, and in a different sense entirely, it could also come from the meaning of the sentence “I got your back.” The last reference under “spotted in the wild” especially seems to support this sense. Google returned 342 hits for “at his|her|my|their|your|its back and call”, compared to the approximately 82,800 hits for “at his|her|my|their|your|its beck and call”.

See also: beckon call, beckoned call, beacon call.

| Comments Off link | entered by David Romano, 2005/08/12 |

beck and call » beacon call

Classification: English – and «» in/en – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • The power of His mighty hand,
    Which saved my soul from Hell;
    Stands ready at my beacon call,
    My worries to dispel.
    (Poetry from the Psalms, 1994)
  • God Who knows everything about us, is watching us, and crossing His arms, and shaking His head at our audacity at expecting Him to be at our beacon call whenever we want, while we just go our own little way, doing our own little thing, doing whatever we want, when we want. (FaithWriters.com, Mar. 19, 2004)
  • Now that I am able to put my full concentration on EPI/PPT I am at your beacon call to answer questions, and assist you if you choose to join the best thing I have ever seen. (Money Talk forum, Nov. 4, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

See also beckon call and beckoned call.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/17 |

beck and call » beckon call

Classification: English – and «» in/en – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • Lying in her bed, she could have the doctors and nurses at her beckon call, either by pressing a button or feigning an outrageous symptom that warranted further attention. (Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, Feb. 21, 2003)
  • Religion majors: “You know King Solomon had hundreds of women at his beckon call. Would you like to be my 236th?” (Pacific Union College Campus Chronicle, Nov. 13, 2003)
  • In fact the very day before the attacks, on September 10th, Attorney General John Ashcroft, at the beckon call of Bush, denied the request for money. (Susquehanna University Crusader, Apr. 23, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

See also beckoned call and beacon call.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/17 |

beg » beckon

Chiefly in:   beckon the question

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • I guess this beckons the question: will anyone ever be able to compete with eBay? (Fat Wallet forums, Mar. 26, 2005)
  • This beckons the question: Why do minorities need affirmative action in the first place? (Ohio University Post, Jan. 27, 2003)
  • Numerous case studies of child fatalities involving faith healing and Christian Science, a specific branch of spiritual healing, beckons the following question: just how effective is this approach? (Issues: Berkeley Medical Journal, Fall 1998)

Analyzed or reported by:

A common pet peeve is the use of the expression begs the question to mean ‘prompts the question,’ rather than its original sense relating to the logical fallacy of assuming the very point one is trying to prove. As contributors to the alt.usage.english thread have noted, replacing beg with beckon in some ways salvages this expression by bringing it in line with what is actually meant.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/06/11 |
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