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tenterhooks » tenderhooks

Chiefly in:   on tenderhooks

Classification: English – /t/-flapping

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Snooker: Nick left on tenderhooks. MANCHESTER professional Nick Dyson faces an anxious wait to find out whether he will still have a place…” (link)
  • “Home Page. Portus has hedge fund industry on tenderhooks. Project runs into stiff opposition by bank-owned firms” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Robert Hartwell Fiske (The Dictionary of Disagreeable English)
  • James Cochrane (Between You and I)

The “tenter” of “tenterhooks” — referring to a stretching device — is utterly unfamiliar to most English speakers, so it’s not surprising that some of them have replaced it by the familiar “tender”, suggesting the pain that comes from having hooks in tender places.

| 5 comments | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/04/10 |

moreover » morever

Variant(s):  more ever

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

I’ve labelled this one as “questionable” because the one-word version (morever), at least, could easily arise as a typographical error rather than a reanalysis. However, the examples I’ve shown here come from documents in which the word is consistently spelled this way on multiple occasions; the article from the Journal of Materials Chemistry, for example, contains four tokens of morever. It’s also quite a plausible reanalysis: the meaning of moreover, which is rather opaque, could just as sensibly be related to ‘more’ + ‘ever’ as to ‘more’ + ‘over’, and there are plenty of other -ever words (e.g., however, wherever, whatever) that could serve as analogues.

| Comments Off link | entered by Q. Pheevr, 2005/04/07 |

ring » wring

Chiefly in:   wring the changes

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • We wondered would Micko wring the changes at half time but the team emerged untouched and within minutes looked to have repaid the manager’s faith in them. (link)
  • After making three or four positional changes during the interval Camross began to wring the changes bringing on three substitutes. (link)
  • Other ingredients can be used to wring the changes. I sometimes add some black pepper or basil after it’s done. (link)
  • Buy the album. Don’t expect to love it immediately, it is unique songwriting - you have to learn to ‘wring the changes’ & then WOW. (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • commenter Ken Lakritz (link)

See also wring»ring.

| Comments Off link | entered by David Romano, 2005/04/06 |

wring » ring

Chiefly in:   ring so.'s neck , ring one's hands

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Ok here comes the part where I wanted to reach through the phone and ring her neck… The MA rudely informs me that she doesn’t have time to call everyone with normal lab results, however the klincher was my second ANA was still positive, but everything else came back negative. (link)
  • She hated to move from the position she was in, but she knew she had to or Mac would ring her neck. She carefully tried to sneak out from under Dillon’s arm only to have it tighten around her waist. (link)
  • I must say, while like all good Americans, I’d like to ring his neck, the tape is just plain pathetic. (link)
  • “Bastard! Pig!” The tiny fists flew again. “Pig! Bastard! I ought’er ring your neck like a scrawny Sunday chicken!” (link)
  • We want to do something besides ring our hands, so we invent symbolic gestures. (link)
  • “The current situation allows them to furrow their brow, ring their hands, gnash their teeth but not do a dadgum thing about it,” he said. (LA Times, July 4, 2005)
  • These cry baby hand ringers of the left are nothing but agents of our enemies have should be locked up for treason for aiding and abetting the enemy during time of war! (link)
  • After more than two years of silent hand-ringing over the occupation and war in Iraq, a series of resolutions and amendments are beginning to open a debate in Congress. (American Friends Service Commitee, June 21, 2005)

The changed sense doesn’t seem to hard, since one can form a ring (with their hands) around another’s neck (altho’ I don’t recommend it).

See also wringer»ringer.

[2005/07/04: Added “ring one’s hands”, plus occurrences. CW.]

| 1 comment | link | entered by David Romano, 2005/04/06 |

sow » sew

Chiefly in:   reap what you sew

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

  • Are you a complete idiot? It was spelled out to you in big type. The term “you reap what you sew” It means one obtains as a reward that which they follow. (link)
  • Reap what I sew (not sow, that’s a pig). Another old church cliche that you heard somewhere. If I reap what I sew, then I will be a millionaire because I have invested alot of money in stocks. (link)
  • One must reap what they sew. But, may one also reap what they have not sewn? (link)

See sow»soak for why it’s questionable.

As a sidenote, there’s another saying parodying “reap what you sow” that seems to be in use: “rip what you sew”.

| 4 comments | link | entered by David Romano, 2005/04/06 |
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