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intents and purposes » intensive purposes

Chiefly in:   for all intensive purposes

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • I know there is more to it then that, but for all intensive purposes it makes more sense to use what we already have as opposed to rewriting the whole damn thing, right? (Dev Shed Java help forum)

Analyzed or reported by:

Allan Hazlett at useandmisuse [writes](www.cassetteradio.com/use…)

> I was one of the few who, upon learning (fairly late in life, I recall) that “for all intensive purposes” is a malapropism, was not embarassed that I had spent to many years not saying “for all intents and purposes,” but rather lamented the fact that “for all intensive purposes” was not an expression in English. It seemed so well to capture what I meant when I uttered it - when we consider only those purposes that are intensive, that’s the sense in which this is a good idea. It’s a good idea for all intensive purposes, but not for some of your other purposes that aren’t so intensive.

The makings of a true eggcorn: it just makes sense.

| 14 comments | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2004/12/09 |

contend » content

Chiefly in:   content with

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • With Accounting Information System (AIS), the fine art of bookkeeping takes on a new meaning. Businesses no longer need to content with piles of logbooks that tend to collect heaps of dust. (Develop An Accounting Package Using VB)
  • [Planned Parenthood] does have a lot to content with regarding Margaret Sanger. (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Erika at Kittenishly Doomy Thoughts (link)

_Contend (v.)_ derives from Latin _contendere_ (stretch out, strive after) and _contain (v.)_ from _continere_ (hold together), so both go back to the same root. The adjective _content_ (in the sense of “satisfied”) confuses the issue further. There is a continuum of meanings stretching from “struggling against something” via “reluctantly putting up with something” and “accepting the presence of something ” to “being satisfied about something”.
So it is no wonder that a [Google search](www.google.com/search?hl=…) for “_[ need | needs | has | have] to content with_” throws up results that fall on any point on this scale, most of them somewhere around the “put up with” point.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2004/12/09 |

bogged down » balked down

Classification: English – vocalized /l/

Spotted in the wild:

  • I must say right here, to a large extend I have to agree with Coletti, who is not so balked down with quotes from other holocaust Revisionists as Widmann seems to be. (link)
  • Well we are doing it. We just got balked down again. Maybe we got balked down so that we can move ahead. This is definitely couple of months worth of work, is it not, Mr. Davis? (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2004/12/09 |

on track » untracked

Classification: English – on «» un- – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • Well, Bubby wasn’t the answer. And Griese hasn’t exactly burned it up. Heck, even TD can’t get untracked. Looks like Elway timed this thing just right. (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2004/12/09 |

prima donna » pre-madonna

Variant(s):  premadonna

Classification: English – cross-language – resyllabification

Spotted in the wild:

  • Ankela is a little pre-madonna. What an attitude problem. (rec.sport.soccer)
  • “A contractor who was working for me quit about 2 weeks into January. The dude was premadonna headcase; came and went as he pleased, social moron (i.e. HR disaster waiting to happen), unreliabliable, etc. Not terribly uncommon in the software industry, but aggravating nonetheless.” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

| 3 comments | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2004/12/09 |
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