seat » seed

Chiefly in:   deep-seeded

Classification: English – /t/-flapping

Spotted in the wild:

  • Still, eight years ago, Darryl Reginelli saw, as others would later on, an opportunity in New Orleans’ lack of a deep-seeded pizza tradition. (Times-Picayune, January 28, 2005)
  • Iesa Galloway, Houston Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the questionnaire was “rooted in deep-seeded ignorance of the religion of Islam and the Muslim people.” (Fox News, January 19, 2005)
  • “The brain is the seed of emotions, personality, vocations and creativity. Brain disorders not only produce physical disability but also hinder human potential. Our goal is to restore the brain to its maximum potential at as early an age as possible,” says Dr. Wiebe, Kinsmen Chair in Pediatric Neurosciences. (Dr. Samuel Wiebe to help children with injury and illness of the brain, U Calgary, January 13, 2005)
  • Epicuren Medicated Acne Cleanser, A medicated anti-bacterial deep pore cleansing gel that is non-irritating to the skin. This product is designed to sterilize the skin’s surface, lift and remove residue and loose dry skin. (Rosanna’s Salon & Day Spa)

Analyzed or reported by:

In the Language Log post cited above, Mark Liberman writes:

>For most Americans, “deep-seeded” is pronounced exactly the same way as “deep-seated”, due to (what linguists call) flapping and voicing of /t/ in words like seated, as in many other contexts (e.g. in fatter and rabbiting and at all, but not in attack). And in terms of the current ordinary-language meaning of the words involved, “deep-seeded ignorance” makes sense, while “deep-seated ignorance” doesn’t. Ignorance can be planted deep and thus have deep metaphorical roots, but deep-seated ignorance would have to be ignorance cut with a lot of room in the crotch, or maybe ignorance sitting in a badly-designed armchair.

We might add that for most speakers, the verb _seed_ will be common in the sense relating to sports competitions, leading to _top-seeded_. AHD4 defines this sense as follows:

>7\. Sports a. To arrange (the drawing for positions in a tournament) so that the more skilled contestants meet in the later rounds. b. To rank (a contestant) in this way.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/01/31 |

of salt » assault

Chiefly in:   take with a grain assault

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Most people will advise you to look at the high profile and most talked about agencies in Atlanta. Take that advice with a grain assault because you might end up finding better service with the little guys. (Georgia Real Estate)
  • So when people decide for themselves that im not and try to bullshit me, i get an attitude. there was no reason for this person to bullshit. none whatsoever. But i guess ill just take it with a grain assault, like i have with everything else in my life. Nothing new. (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • commenters at wolfangel (link)
| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/01/22 |

cue » queue

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Scott sat quietly on stage waiting for his queue, remembering at the last moment to take off his badge so that it wouldn’t reflect in the light. (link)
  • You could tell the lions were getting anxious to have a go at the zebras, so they began their hunt. […] The last lioness just stayed where she was, waiting for her queue from the other two. (link)
  • After 5 days of intensive care in Selenge, Batsaihan and her mother went to Ulan-Bator according to doctors’ direction. While they were waiting for their queue to visit a doctor for the first time at the 3rd Hospital of UB, Batsaihan was called namely, and was asked to visit doctor Enkhbayar without any queue. (libertycenter.org.mn)
  • You can then use the latest software to easily synchronize the video and the slides, so that the slides advance on queue with the video. (link)
  • Right on queue, the very next day, the Family Research Council sent out this email: (Jim Gilliam, 2005/07/07)
| 1 comment | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/01/13 |

petition » partition

Classification: English – /r/-dropping

Spotted in the wild:

  • QUESTION: What is your response to the situation in which Jeremy Rifkin organized a group of church leaders to sign a partition effectively saying that gene patenting was a sin against God? (Interview with Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute)
  • The company has filed a partition for permission to register and distribute new capital (form 35-1) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Later, the SEC has approved the partition with the condition that the company has to submit a Filing document (form 69-1) and make a payment for the Filing fee to the SEC within 30 days prior to the day that the securities of the company are allowed to trade on the SET. (link)
  • [R]esidents in Sydney’s northwest mounted a court case to stop a Muslim prayer being open. Local residents signed a partition with 5000 names claiming the centre would have an ‘adverse impact’ on their community, and that the proclaimed site of the centre is on land with ‘rare grasses and birds’. (link)
| 1 comment | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/01/12 |

libel » liable

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Comprehensive General Liability Insurance provides protection and defense for “non-professional” incidents that occur. This includes bodily injury or property damage to others for which you are legally liable, such as slip and falls on your premises, liable, slander, false arrest, and advertising liability. (Michigan Specialty Insurance Agency Inc)
  • Dakota, Do you believe in absolute free speech such as liable/slander, child porn, etc… (which is fine if you do)? If not, then you can agree that a line has to be drawn somewhere. (TalkLeft (commentator))
  • 11. Liable, Slander or Harassment. No user shall use Se-C or any items under its control, to slander, liable or harass any other person, business or company. Also included under this gambit is any threats to perform these acts. (Secure-Commerce)

This eggcorn has the particularity of crossing syntactic categories. Mostly in an enumeration followed by “slander”, or the combination “liable/slander”, the difference between these two legal terms being obscure for many non-specialists.

_Libel_ has evolved from Lat. _libellum_ (little book), while _liable_ goes back to the Lat. verb _ligare_ (bind).

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/01/12 |