soft-pedal » soft-peddle

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • The Israelis are sort of soft-peddling it and saying that they’re very content with the way the United States is handling the Middle East and they’re not really happy that such a deal might have been offered. (Dept. of State Daily Press Briefing, Aug. 12, 1994)
  • Apparently assured that he had won Yel’tsin’s endorsement, Rodionov launched attacks against the government for non-payment of funds, against ‘new Russians’ for ruining the Armed Forces, and against Baturin for soft-peddling the dire circumstances of the military. (NIS Observed, Mar. 5, 1997)
  • At the start of the Third Reich, therefore, Hitler’s government soft-peddled its antisemitism, and Hitler carefully steered a course between what he would like to do and what was possible, given public opinion at home and abroad. (Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany, 2001)
  • Hyejin Jae, a classmate also spurned by Berkeley and UCLA, worries that she hurt her chances by soft-peddling family hardships. (Wall St. Journal, July 12, 2002)
  • Education that soft-peddles the flaws of the Democrats will hurt the left. (New Politics, Summer 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

As Q. Pheevr notes, _soft-peddle_ makes perfect sense in contexts suggesting a “soft sell.”

See also backpeddle.

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

backpedal » backpeddle

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • As the 19th century began, the churches realized this and the evangelicals, by now older ministers with families, began to backpeddle, relegating women to lesser roles, segregating African-American worshipers, tolerating slavery and becoming less harsh with the male members. (University of Delaware UpDate, Apr. 16, 1998)
  • Editor’s note: The author would like a chance to cover his behind. To anyone reading this piece who is currently or has been a professor of mine, or to anyone reading this who might have a say in the way my shaky future turns out, please do not regard this article as an admission of inattention or lack of interest in any course or professor. Sufficiently backpeddled, we continue. (University of Michigan Daily, Feb. 17, 1999)
  • After receiving the wrath of the media and the ire of parent groups, Siebert started backpeddling on his holy crusade to save society. (Texas State University Star, Apr. 1, 1999)
  • But the tides of globalization can shift quickly, occasionally causing economists and social scientists to backpeddle and eat crow. (Carleton College Voice, Summer 2004)

One possible semantic justification for this eggcorn is noted by John T. Reed in comments about spelling errors by football coaches:

Some spelling errors just make us laugh. But others can cause confusion. For example, peddle means to sell, so a relatively new coach may figure “backpeddle” means to fake going backward when you really are not, selling the offense on the fake. Spelled correctly as backpedal, the reader recognizes the word pedal refers to the motion of the legs when backpedaling and how it resembles pedaling a bike.

See also soft-peddle.

| 2 comments | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/03/02 |