linguistics » languistics
From Estel Telcontar in e-mail, 28 November 2004, from his younger brother at age 13:
He finds this [”languistics”] perfectly logical, because linguistics is about language, so it should have the lang- of “language” in it.
The Eggcorn Database - v. 0.5
marble » marball
From Estel Telcontar in e-mail, 28 November 2004, among eggcorns produced by his younger brother:
[at the age of 10 or 11] “marball” is pronounced slightly differently than “marble” - the final syllable I think has secondary stress, and the vowel is that in “ball”. Again, when I talked to him about this (a few years ago), he was surprised to find out that it wasn’t actually “marball” - he’d always thought it was, because marbles are a kind of ball.
gird » girdle
Spotted in the wild:
- “President Bush, he must have guessed, was girdling his loins to continue the Grand Game with Iraq, after goading it into the long war with Iran” (link)
- Civil liberties groups in the US are girdling their loins fo[r] battle with processor giant Intel over an encrypted ’security code’ (link)
- And the odd, male things grouped down yonder by the auger, the giant twist of fate, fist of uncertainty and fount of gestation, are scattered about and girdling their loins for a late summer finale giant in its summation. (link)
Reported by Michael Siemon on soc.motss, 19 January 2005. The [first] example above I found via Google.
[2005-08-23, CW: more examples added.]
canola » granola
Spotted in the wild:
- “We use only PURE GRANOLA oil!” (menu of a small Cambodian restaurant)
- The traditional Medieterranian diet, rich in olive oil, has much prevented obesity in this part of the worlds. The low cholesterol Granola oil (an artificial, genetically altered product), however, makes people obese. (curesone.com forum, June 26, 2003)
- need prices C&F Guinea-west africa for the following products.
5 gallon tins and 10 gallon drums of corn oil, peanut butter oil and granola oil-average quality. (Agriscape forum, March 16, 2004) - […] 1 ts cumin seeds, ¼ cup granola oil, 2 chopped onions […] (Tandoori Gril Whistler, Prawns in Sweet and Hot Curry)
Posted by Ned Deily on soc.motss, 17 January 2005. Originally from Ellen Evans, who found it on the menu of a small Cambodian restaurant.
powerhouse » powerhorse
Spotted in the wild:
- (1) This is a real powerhorse of a game, on two CDs; perhaps too powerful for the average machine in the home today. (2) If you need a powerhorse to cope with large flies, big or windy rivers and/or heavy sinkers there is nothing better. (3) Although it is a small kiln, it is a powerhorse for fusing and worked well for annealing. (link)
Reported on Philip Hofmeister’s blog for 4 February 2005. Hofmeister notes:
“Powerhorse” gets about 5,420 whG, while “powerhouse” gets 2,540,000, so it’s only about a 0.2 % eggcorn by the standards of Language Log . And for some reason, a huge proportion of the examples involve computers and software.