utmost » upmost

Variant(s):  up most, up-most

Classification: English – nearly mainstream

Spotted in the wild:

  • It will give comfort to would-be euro counterfeiters in the 11 nations adopting the new coins and notes from January 1 2002, and is likely to embarrass the European commission and the European central bank, both keen to be seen to be doing their upmost to guard against the risk of fraud. (Andrew Osborn in The Guardian, Aug 30, 2000)
  • The important thing was that both teams truly captured the Olympic spirit in fighting for supremacy for every second of the match, but displaying the upmost respect for each other after the final whistle. (Allon Sinai in The Jerusalem Post, Aug 24, 2008)
  • Looking ahead to the game Head Coach, Shaun Edwards, said, “We have the up most respect for our opponents Edinburgh and we will be taking a strong team up there on Saturday ready for a highly competitive game. […]” (lions-tour.com, Aug 22, 2008)
  • The Sportsplex does the upmost best to offer programs that are requested by the community such as the Hockey School, Ladies Hockey School and Power Skating and so forth. (Clearwater Times (BCLocalNews.com), Aug 18, 2008)
  • Our games are always changing and are all designed to provide the upmost of fun. (Stourbridge News, Aug 21, 2008)

Analyzed or reported by:

The substitution of “up” for the opaque “ut” in _utmost_ has been pointed out numerous times.

The Eggcorn Forum poster Russell analyses:

> [The constituent “ut”] is liable to reanalysis to something that more transparently expresses superlative meaning, such as up+most (‘uppermost’), which fits with the MORE IS UP-type metaphor. This may also involve anticipatory assimilation to the nasal in “most”.

A Google search shows very large numbers of hits, from both sides of the Atlantic (and Australia, too). All the above cites are taken from searches restricted to news outlets, and most are very recent, which justifies the “nearly mainstream” classification.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris W. (admin), 2008/08/24 |

told » tolled

Chiefly in:   all tolled , untolled

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • All tolled, the Republican administrations from Lincoln to Garfield gave their railroad buddies 155,504,994 acres (more area than Texas), until Democrat Grover Cleveland declared still-unclaimed portions open to settlement in 1887. (Bits of News, Sep 3, 2007)
  • No, not Scheme! Please, anything but Scheme! Oh, the memories, the horror, the untolled misery and death it left in its wake! (Slacker Central forum, April 3, 2002)
  • “Even if we get a killing frost, it wouldn’t change yields too much on our main grain crops,” he said Thursday afternoon. “All tolled, it won’t have much of an economic impact, not that it won’t cut down yield on the late planted crops, but there weren’t very many acres of that this year.” (Guardian Unlimited, Reader film review, Oct 22, 2003)
  • And also worth seeing for Johnny Depp’s comical antics. Good, silly fun. And, all tolled, much better than time spent in a Soviet-era holding cell. (Guardian Unlimited, Reader comment, Nov 22, 2006)
  • If you don’t believe the West’s possession of nukes didn’t save untolled lives during the Soviet era, you are ignoring reality, which is no unique event herein. ()

Analyzed or reported by:

It is hard to credit anyone for this eggcorn. The _all tolled_ version has been suggested twice on this very site, by Bill Bevis and Ken Lakritz, and is, as noted above, also in Brians. Jan Freeman used it as an example in her Eggcorn-themed column _Wanton Eggcorns_ in the Boston Globe on April 8, 2007.

Quite a number of people are convinced the _tolled_ version is the correct one and defend it, because it makes more sense to them:

* _It’s “all tolled” as in tallied, not “all told”
/english nazi_ (link)
* _untold instead of untolled when referring to numbers. “untold numbers of civilians were killed.” i hate that._ (link)

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2007/09/16 |

ulterior » alterior

Chiefly in:   alterior motive

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Is there an alterior motive behind a woman’s actions? (Blogcity post title, 10 September 2006)
  • While the 31-year-old’s performance went well, Calwell confessed to having an alterior motive. “The event is really a stepping stone for me. Obviously, the triathlon season is my main goal. I am using this to prepare for the Contact Energy Cup starting in November.” (Rotura Daily Post (NZ), Sep 10, 2007)
  • Anyway, IBM has alterior motives here. (Guardian Games Blog, Keith Stuart, June 18, 2007)
  • Nobody seems able to give any possible alterior use this or a future government could put the database to that has even a theoretical basis in reality. (Guardian Unlimited, Reader comment, Sep 8, 2007)

Analyzed or reported by:

With the borrowing of words and phrases from other languages, English speakers have developed intuitions about the meaning of foreign roots. “Alternative”, “alter ego” etc. are sufficiently frequent to link _alter-_ to the sense “other”, and make _alter-_ more transparent than _ulter-/ultra_. (Note that the original sense “the other of two” has been largely obscured: the use of _alternative_ is a common entry in usage advice guides not only in English, but also in French and German, and probably in other languages.)

In the forum thread, poster booboo also noted a further development to _alternative motive_.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2007/09/13 |

foment » ferment

Chiefly in:   ferment trouble/fears/unrest

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Indonesia’s recalled ambassador, Hamzah Thayeb, believes Australia’s Uniting Church with partners in Papua, is fermenting trouble in the province. (ABC.Net.au, 20 April , 2006, The World Today transcript)
  • In a special announcement made on the state-owned Kaduna State Radio Corporation (KSMC) Mr Ibhaze said his command was reliably informed that trouble makers wanted to ferment trouble either yesterday or immediately after today’s Jumat prayers pointing out that the aim was to cause violence and destruction. (allAfrica.com, September 23, 2006)
  • But if he is denied the throne, will he rebel and ferment a civil war of his own? (Nick Cohen in Guardian Unlimited, October 3, 2004)

_Foment_ having become obscure and somewhat formulaic in its usage, the verb _ferment_ and its vivid imagery of slightly disgusting, bubbling and creative chaos is there to fill the gap.

With thanks to Bernhard Rohrer, who pointed out this eggcorn.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2006/10/13 |

wing » wind

Chiefly in:   right-wind , left-wind , wind-nut

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Your gross stupidity and parochial in-bred attitudes are alarming — even for a right-wind nut (Right Wing Nut House, blog comment, May 3, 2005)
  • His government was preceded by a left-wind government who attempted to negotiate with the Palestinian side and their answer was a huge outbreak of violence. (Political Crossfire forum, Oct 17, 2004)
  • The only good thing that will come out of this being substantiated is being able to watch the wind nuts try to spin it. (USCHO forum, July 2, 2005)
  • No, this has nothing to do with a “good ole boys club” so you left-wind feminists can calm down. (The Chronicle of Higher Education, forum post, Nov 29, 2004)
  • Catholicism and right-wind politics expurge any serious debate on this issue. (Guardian News blog, comment, February 22, 2005)

Analyzed or reported by:

I found this reinterpretation puzzling at first because the adjectives _right-wing_ and _left-wing_ aren’t particularly obscure. It probably relies on the metaphor of the political wind that blows from a particular direction.

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