The Eggcorn Database - v. 0.5

Marked as “questionable” because the link between the procedure and the digging implement is rather unclear. Still, on the ADS-L mailing list, Johnathan Lighter [notes](listserv.linguistlist.org…):

> [W]hen I first heard the word “spayed” as a child, the only sense I could make out of it was that they used a tiny spade (a sharp instrument) to do it.
>
> Presumably, others have been similarly misled.

A minority among cat (and to a lesser degree dog) owners appear to have a verb _spade_ in their vocabulary, the past participle of which can also show up as _spaded_, and a noun _spade_ (and sometimes a nominalised form _spading_):

* Our other cat just got spaded yesterday and she was up on her hind legs yowling and weaving looking at the other side of the water heater. ([link](homesteadingtoday.com/vb/…))
* Do you have any idea how many poor kitties get gased? Spade and neutering works but these supposed cat lovers let them breed like rats ([link](www.atsnn.com/story/12500…))
* So,in my usual blunt manner I wrote her back to send money earmarked for cat neutering/ spading and we would do just that. ([link](www.geocities.com/hermit3…))

These days, _ba(i)ling wire_ is often used metaphorically to describe how a jury-rigged solution is held together. As the original use of the wire for making bales has faded from general memory, so has the original spelling — Googlehits for _baling wire_ are now rivaled by those for _bailing wire_ (about 35K to 20K).

Commenter Sally Cassil notes that the verbs _bale_ and _bail_ are frequently confused:

I have recently seen several references to pilots “baling out” of airplanes, or people having to “bale” water out of a leaking boat. As far as I know, “bale” as a noun refers to a large “package’ of hay, and, as a verb, to the process of getting the hay into such packages. One “bails” out of a plane if it’s crashing, and also bails water from a flooded boat.

Murie: “On NPR this evening, reporting on a guilty verdict just returned, several references to “pre-emptory challenges” exercised in the jury selection.”

Paul Brians (Common Errors in English) cautions:

“Peremptory” (meaning “imperative” ) is often misspelled and mispronounced “preemptory” through confusion caused by the influence of the verb “preempt,” whose adjectival form is actually “preemptive.” “Preemptory” exists only as an obscure legal term you’re not likely to have use for.

Ca. 170 Google webhits on “pre-emptory challenge”, vs. ca. 26,400 for “peremptory challenge” (some from law dictionaries).

Citations provided by Callan in his ADS-L posting. Many thousands of Google hits, though some are for “darn right” as a euphemized “damn right”, a usage that undoubtedly contributed to “downright” >> “darn right”.