« previous page
next page »

discard » disguard

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Any materials remaining in the case when the reservation is concluded will be emptied and disguarded. (GWU Marvin Center Operating Policies)
  • We discuss our reasons for accepting or disguarding each candidate data set. (Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Feb. 1997)
  • The data used in our spectral analysis are shown as filled circles; the data disguarded owing to problems with the current ASCA calibration are overlaid as open circles.
    …
    There is a significant excess of emission suggestive of an additional emission line just above 8 keV (this shows up in both the GISs whose data we used, and examination of the disguarded SIS data in this range also revealed the line component). (Astrophysical Journal, Nov. 2001)
  • These can be easily removed and disguarded and will help to reduce some of the population for next year. (LSU AgCenter, May 10, 2005)

Some instances of _disguard_ may also be influenced by _disregard_.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/06/18 |

whence » whenst

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • It is sad at times, to find not only students but instructors that forget from whenst they came. (Green Dragon Dispatch, Jan. 1, 1994)
  • Be gone, denizens of the nether regions! Back to the wallow from whenst thou came…. And taketh thy foul spawn with ye…. (Blog for America, Nov. 8, 2003)
  • That’s far more than she and Paris were paying, but far less than market in the city, which its astronomical rental prices even after the dotcom bust and 9/11 drove heaps of unemployed workers back from whenst they came. (American Idle, Sep. 10, 2004)
  • From Whenst Thou Comest
    What website did you visit just prior to hitting KUR? (Kill Ugly Radio, Nov. 27, 2004)

_Whenst_ often appears as a quasi-poetic or archaistic form of _when_, apparently on the model of _whilst_ — with extra reinforcement from archaic 2nd-person singular verb forms ending in _-(e)st_. But the eggcornier usage of _whenst_ is as a replacement for _whence_ (now typically appearing only in the frozen phrase “[from] whence X came”). The composition of the term is interpreted as _when_ plus the archaic-sounding suffix _-st_. (_Whence_ and _when_ are etymologically related, but only in the distant past — they both derive from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic adverb *hwan-.)

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/06/17 |

washboard » dashboard

Chiefly in:   dashboard stomach

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Guy: Nah, I’m trying to get that six pack for summer. I’m not going for the dashboard stomach or anything. Besides, the dashboard on my car isn’t looking too good, ya know? “ (link)
  • “… three times and I have the soundtrack, I loved Timeline too (can you say dashboard stomach?) hahaha he is one of the most handsome men I´ve ever seen…” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • David Fenton (e-mail of 16 June 2005)

Fenton supplied the first cite from the New York Times of 15 June 2005, in the “Overheard in New York” column; Fenton remarked that it seemed self-aware, in the sense that the speaker seemed to realize there was some oddity in the expression. The other, about actor/singer Gerard Butler, is the only (genuine) one I could find by googling. Can two swallows an eggcorn summer make?

| 2 comments | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/06/16 |

roller coaster » roll-a-coaster

Variant(s):  rollacoaster

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Thanks for the saga advise. I will take you words to treatment with me tomorrow. I’m sure it will be a roll-a-coaster, but I don’t intend to let it throw me off.” (Posting to a cancer e-mail list, as reported by Horn)
  • “SO CONFUSED, I AM ON A ROLLACOASTER RIDE … and I feel like I am on a rollacoaster which I have said that to him, and he tells me the other day that he …” (link)
  • “In this episode of “Reading Rainbow,” Levar goes to the amusement park and rides the roll-a-coaster.” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Larry Horn (American Dialect Society mailing list, 12 June 2005)

Horn wrote:

The “saga” is quite possibly a typo, the “advise” a simple misspelling that I suspect I’ve encountered in students’ papers. But
the “roll-a-coaster” is the interesting one, and not novel or unique to this writer. Google has 411 hits, some literal, some ‘emotional’.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/06/15 |

beg » beckon

Chiefly in:   beckon the question

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • I guess this beckons the question: will anyone ever be able to compete with eBay? (Fat Wallet forums, Mar. 26, 2005)
  • This beckons the question: Why do minorities need affirmative action in the first place? (Ohio University Post, Jan. 27, 2003)
  • Numerous case studies of child fatalities involving faith healing and Christian Science, a specific branch of spiritual healing, beckons the following question: just how effective is this approach? (Issues: Berkeley Medical Journal, Fall 1998)

Analyzed or reported by:

A common pet peeve is the use of the expression begs the question to mean ‘prompts the question,’ rather than its original sense relating to the logical fallacy of assuming the very point one is trying to prove. As contributors to the alt.usage.english thread have noted, replacing beg with beckon in some ways salvages this expression by bringing it in line with what is actually meant.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/06/11 |
« previous page
next page »