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hybrid » high bred

Variant(s):  highbred, hi-bred, hibred

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Well, Arianna’s driving a high bred car. In Bill Maher’s new book, he makes a solid case about driving gas guzzlng SUV’s financing the terrorists and he’s been pretty convincing on his TV appearances including Larry King.” (link)
  • “With respect to your purchase of a highbred car – did you ever wonder how the hydrogen gas was produced?” (link)
  • “We have purchased a 2002 Toyota Prius, electric/gas hi-bred car as our staff car.” (link)
  • “Why has no USA auto maker made a Hibred car like Toyota and Honda. These are questions we should be looking into.” (link)

Cites provided to me by Tommy Grano.

| 2 comments | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/05/06 |

bed » bread

Chiefly in:   bread and breakfast

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Finding the right hotel, hostel, bread and breakfast or temporary lodgings at the right prices for the East Village and New York City area.” (link)
  • “The Athena Hotel is a lovely family run bread and breakfast hotel, in a restored Victorian listed building, professionally designed and tastefully decorated, offering guests the ambience and warmth necessary for a relaxing and enjoyable stay.” (link)
  • “Information on rural real estate, hunting land, acreage, recreational property, farms, ranches, hunting & fishing retreats, timber, bread and breakfasts, motels, hotels, country stores, bars, cafes, taverns, more… “ (link)

Cites supplied to me by Tommy Grano.

Some Google statistics (on 18 May 2005):
“bed and breakfast”: ca. 6,030,000 web hits
“bread and breakfast”: ca. 13,400 web hits
“bred and breakfast”: ca. 872 web hits
(a great many of them from non-US/UK sites)

The “bred and breakfast” cites probably have “bred” as a misspelling for “bread”. The very large number of “bread and breakfast” cites argues that this is no inadvertent error (with the “br” of “bread” anticipating the “br” of “breakfast”).

| 2 comments | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/05/06 |

each his » each’s

Chiefly in:   to each's own

Variant(s):  eaches, each is, each as

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “But all in all I thought this was a spectacular album that grabs me and pulls me in everytime I listen to it. But then again to each’s own I guess…” (link)
  • “Freedom of speech is very important, but i think its better to say how u feel to the persons face, just my oppinion. to each’s own.” (link)
  • “I dont understand why someone would spend that much on the 3.0g when intel is already starting there next line. But to eaches own but i can relate to your parents not letting use there credit card.” (link)
  • “To each is own, I guess. Your definition gives you happiness, just like Frank’s gives him his.” (link)
  • “I’m for the most part against reading and posting at the TOW sites particularly when you are very new to the infidelity nightmare. But to each as own” (link)

Cites supplied to me by Tommy Grano.

| Comments Off link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/05/06 |

spit and image » spitting image

Classification: English – questionable – nearly mainstream – and «» in/en

Originally entered by xerby, who commented:

Just a phrase, “spitting image”, I’d heard for about forty years. And then one day someone on the radio said “spit and image” which immediately made more sense to me. In the first we could easily visualize a boy picking up his father’s bad habits(spitting…like mothers don’t spit), or if you’ve ever seen a boy walking with his dad you’d see the same gait(as well as image). In the second instance, “spit” infers a more visceral, biological, connection.
And, of course, the visual “image” stays as part of the phrase.

Most major dictionaries report that _spitting image_ is an alteration of _spit and image_. In an article in American Speech, however, Larry Horn argues that the expression was originally _spitten image_ (_spitten_ being a now-archaic dialectal form of the past participle of _spit_), and that both _spit and image_ and _spitting image_ are later reinterpretations. (The _American Speech_ link requires a subscription to Project Muse — see also Michael Quinion’s summary at World Wide Words).

Horn’s article also discusses various eggcornish reanalyses of _in_/_and_/_-in’_/_-en_, some of which appear elsewhere in the database (e.g., off the beat and path, once and a while).

| 6 comments | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/05/04 |
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