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awkward » awkword

Variant(s):  awkwordness

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • even had jokes I would tell people while I was waiting for people to reboot to fill the awkword silence and keep the customer from getting frustrated. (link)
  • More awkword moments went by. We sat in silence while outside the barking and hooting of the java programmors echoed loudley, sounding like Feeding Time in the deepest vaults of the basement of the zoo where they keep all the deranged and defourmed animols who arent allowed outside for the generol public to see. (link)
  • Right now the source code is pretty awkword(will make it better when releasing :-) ). (link)
  • Looking at the life of this woman, we identify with her awkwordness and tragedies. (link)
  • As an anarchist, voting always has presented an awkword situation. (link)

Heidi Harley mentions _awkwordness_, with an unusual stress pattern, in a post about language humor in the Simpsons.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Chris W. (admin), 2005/04/01 |

incorrigible » incourageable

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • A new voice boomed now, much like the old one, but with more anger. It was the voice of an infuriated parent, ready to dole out punishment to an incourageable child. (link)
  • you’ll also note that some of the greatest ‘defenders of the faith’ had no faith or were incourageable drunkards who played for conquest and booty… (link)
  • We drove in silence to my condo in Gold Coast where you would prove to be the most incourageable and thankless of all my progeny. (link)
  • I’ve given the POWER to the most corrupted, incourageable, untenable hunks of human viciousness I could find. (link)

Even though the word _encourageable_ (meaning “capable of or responding well to being encouraged”) probably exerts a pull on the spelling of _incorrigible_, I have marked the reshaping as _incourageable_ as a genuine eggcorn: The link between the _-corrig-_ component and _correct(ion)_ might indeed be rather obscure for many people. Moreover, except in the euphemism _correctional facility_, _correction_ isn’t employed very often to refer to discipline (or child rearing).

Sometimes, however, the conflation with _encourageable_ goes all the way, as in this entry from the Urban Dictionary:

> 1. Cretin
> An encourageable greenhorn. No matter how much you try, the person has no idea of what he is being instructed, nor does he care. The person is hopeless

| 1 comment | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/04/01 |

salchow » sowchow

Classification: English – cross-language – vocalized /l/

Spotted in the wild:

  • I’m doing a tripel Sowchow, toe and loop. (link)
  • There are different types of jumps in figure skating a edge jump and pick jump a pick jump is a toe loop, flip and lutze, some edge jumps are waltz jump axel sowchow and loop. (link)

This is a rarer variant of the _salchow » sowcow_ eggcorn. See that entry for further remarks.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/04/01 |

salchow » sowcow

Classification: English – cross-language – vocalized /l/

Spotted in the wild:

  • Another big moment the same year was “the first time I did a double sowcow: […”] (link)
  • I really love watching brian skate and it was a honor to skate with him at stars on ice with the minnesota special olympics thanks for all his help with my double sowcow. (link)
  • The G-rated skating flick, starring Michelle Trachtenberg, Hayden Panettiere as rink rivals and (Joan Cusack and Kim Cattrall as their moms, couldn’t land the sowcow. Targeted at tweens on spring break, Ice Princess averaged a frosty $2,804 at 2,501 theaters. (Yahoo! Movie reviews)
  • Because they knew the competition would be tough that year, they decided to attempt the “triple-lutz-sowcow-off-the-dishwasher-nothing-but-net” move (as seen in “the cutting edge”). (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • desperate hours productions blog (link)

The _salchow_, sometimes referred to as _Salchow jump_ is a figure skating jump named after the Swedish figure skater Ulrich Salchow (1877-1949). Occasionally, we find the rarer form _sowchow_.

Names for athletic moves and maneuvers don’t really have to make much sense. Eggcorn users may be satisfied to suppose that the term is an obscure or jocular allusion to sows and cows.

The error can occur in other languages than English — a pan-linguistic eggcorn? This is from a young figure skater writing in French, who, however, is unsure of the spelling:

> Je suis un garçon et je fais du patin depuis 3 ans. Je fait le sowchow (je pense que ça s’écrit comme ça), le saut de valse, saut de lapin, cherry flip. Je suis rendu à l’étape 4 et j’ai eu ma première médaille d’or il y a moins de 3 semaines, à Longueuil. C’était ma 2ème compétition.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/04/01 |
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