curb » curve

Chiefly in:   curve one's hunger , curve one's appetite , curve one's enthusiasm

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “This will help you curve your appetite and cause you to eat less. Eat complex carbohydrates.” (link)
  • “Curve your enthusiasm! As yesterday, today you can find pessimistic headlines talking once again about housing problems…” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Paul Brians, Common Errors (link)
  • jorkel and others, Eggcorn Forum (link)
  • brians and others, Eggcorn Forum (link)

Brians: “A “curb” was originally a device used to control an unruly horse. Already in the 18th century people were speaking by analogy of controlling their appetites as “curbing” them. You do not “curve” your hunger, appetite, desires, etc. You curb them.”

Curb ‘control’ survives only in this metaphorical use, so it’s ripe for eggcorning.

(Suggested to me by Lee Rudolph.)

| Comments Off link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2008/08/29 |

copyright » copywrite

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • A few years ago, the Federal Communications Commission tried to force use of the “broadcast flag” on the manufacturers of any device that could theoretically play copywrite-protected media. (link)
  • All of our images are copywrite protected and watermarked, although the purchased images will not be. (link)
  • starting today, i need to put copywrite on my snapshots.. (link)
  • still being relatively new to the title, I’m finding myself asking questions that are not gonna be answered unless I go back-issuing (copywrite, me, 2005) […] Story is less superhero-y (i’d copywrite that, but it’s pretty shitty, so I’m leaving it wide open to y’all — go for it) than most DC stuff I’m reading (link)
  • That being the case, I request that any use of these materials be cited, but withhold copywrite protection for any non-profit or academic uses, either within the Marshall Islands, or elsewhere. (A Survey of Marshallese Nutrition)
  • www.21c-online.com is published and Copyrighted 2000 by OnLine Publications.com, Inc., Miami, Florida. (link)
  • Disputes involving domains that are copywritten and/or trademarked are handled through the ICANN approved UDRP. These complaints will be handled by an approved third party arbitrator and GKG is required to abide by this decision. This policy cannot be used for non-copywritten or trademarked domains. (link)
  • If a user of the site is sharing copywritten works they do not have permission to share, they are breaking US laws by doing so. […] Recently I have even begun filtering searches for obvious copywritten titles in order to curb this abuse of the site. The problem with peer-to-peer file sharing is that there is no way to find out if what a user is sharing is copywritten (and done so without permission) without actually downloading the content from them. (Techreview.com)

Analyzed or reported by:

_Copywrite_ is employed as a modifier, a noun, or a denominal verb (in the sense, register/display a copyright (notice)). Eggcorn users run into problems when they need the past participle of the verb: both, _copywrited_ and _copywritten_ are common.

Occasionally, we encounter the a stray _copywright_:

> Besides, the notion of “harmonizing patent laws” rings more of globalism and consistency than copywright infringement. (link)

This may be a hypercorrection (see _playwright»playwrite_)

See also copy writer»copyrighter.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/02/25 |