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touch » torch

Chiefly in:   torch paper

Classification: English – /r/-dropping

Spotted in the wild:

  • Was it really ‘outside agitators’ who sparked the trouble? Or once the torch paper was lit, did Muslim youth exploit the opportunity to exact retribution on ancient Hindu rivals? (Red Action Bulletin, July/Aug. 2001)
  • Laws lights the torch paper …
    “We have got to go at them from the start, when we kick off on Wednesday evening the torch paper will be lit.” (Iron-Bru.net, May 11, 2003)
  • Contrary to what many scientists such as Stephen Hawking seem to suppose, the role of the Creator is not to light the blue torch paper of the big bang and then retire, but continuously to hold the world in being. (Canyon Institute Newsletter, Fall 2003)
  • But it was his willingness to run back a kick by Paul Grayson, take on Jason Robinson on the outside and offload to the supporting Tyrone Howe which lit the torch paper for Ireland to cut loose in the third quarter. (Irish Times, Mar. 9, 2004)
  • Ronald Reagan’s legacy in Asia is most visible today on the Afghan-Pakistan frontier, where his drive to end the Cold War climaxed with the CIA-backed humiliation of the Soviets in Afghanistan but lit the torch-paper of radical Islam that spawned Al-Qaeda. (News24, South Africa, June 7, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

_Touch paper_ refers to a kind of paper soaked in potassium nitrate that was once commonly used in the UK as a fuse for fireworks. It lives on in the metaphorical expression _light the (blue) touch paper_.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/16 |

deluded » diluted

Variant(s):  self-diluted

Classification: English – /t/-flapping

Spotted in the wild:

  • He says it makes him weep when he sees them poor diluted fools going around and thinking they is well men, talking and laughing and marrying and giving in to marriage right on the edge of the grave. (Danny's Own Story, by Don Marquis, 1912)
  • No, it comes from plain, simple spite. Spite, caused by people who think the average Mac user is some sad, diluted fool who doesn’t “know any better”. (Capitalist Lion, June 24, 2003)
  • Can we ever again be diluted into believing sanctions work? (OpinionJournal reader response, Nov. 2003)
  • Obviously buoyed by the self-diluted notion of momentum and the L.A. Times Poll thru the Conservative echo chamber buzz, the Bush camp and the RNC knew damn well the contents of Miller’s speech – and, pulled the trigger on another ‘slam dunk’, anyway. (Democrats & Liberals, Sep. 6, 2004)
  • Indeed, these diluted souls (as represented by Mr. Carlson above) feel they have the right to tell a worldwide religious organization who should lead them. (Righting Wisconsin, Apr. 22, 2005)

Analyzed or reported by:

For many American speakers, _diluted_ can be pronounced with a first vowel of /ə/ or /ɪ/ (and the usual flap or tap for intervocalic /t/), rendering it nearly homonymous with _deluded_.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/16 |

mind you » mind due

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Mind due, he’s also happy cooking in his kitchen while his wife is out as the principle income earner in her household. (Christians On The Internet mailing list, Jan. 11, 2001)
  • I remember being stuck at primary school because of a hurricane. Mind due, that was 14 years ago, and I don’t think we’ve had another one since! (Jackson United forum, Sep. 17, 2003)
  • Mind due I doubt my opinion counts, I’ve only been a student for what, nearly 17 years, and a qualified instructor for almost seven of them. (Martial Arts Planet forum, July 22, 2004)
  • Mind due it would have to be really loud to out volume a RX100 going full tat up a dirt road. (Kiwi Biker forum, Jan. 2, 2005)
  • Mind due i’ve had to grab a couple of breezy files to fix some performance issues myself, but for a young distro its showing a hell of a lot of potential. (New Zealand Linux User Group, July 2, 2005)

Analyzed or reported by:

This eggcorn only seems possible in those dialects of English (UK, Aus., NZ, etc.) where due is pronounced /dju:/ (rather than the typical US pronunciation /du:/, homonymous with _do_). This allows /maɪndju:/ to be understood as _mind due_, since geminate /dd/ is pronounced simply as /d/.

Cf. the line in Meredith Willson’s song from _The Music Man_, “Till There Was You”: “…in sweet fragrant meadows of dawn and dew.” As performed by the Beatles, it sounds as if Paul McCartney has reinterpreted the line as “dawn and you” (at least it sounds that way to some listeners — see this 2002 thread in alt.usage.english).

Cf. also point of view » point of you, which relies on a similar geminate simplification.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/15 |

strike » stripe

Chiefly in:   stripe me pink

Classification: English – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • Then they investigated my systems disk on their checker, SAM. And stripe me pink, SAM told them that the Utilities 2 disk had also been infected by the Scores virus. (MUESLI News, Mar. 1990)
  • Well, stripe me pink and call me a llama - is this plastic pop at its most plasticy? (MVC user review, June 28, 2001)
  • Aussie slang is so infectious. … Stripe me pink! (i swear!) (BootsnAll Travel Community, Nov. 4, 2004)
  • stripe me pink! - expression of surprise, amazement, wonder. (JoyZine: Australia Decoded)

Analyzed or reported by:

_Strike me pink_ is primarily a UK/Australian exclamation of surprise (OED has citations back to 1902). Some examples of _stripe me pink_ are evidently based on mishearings by English speakers from elsewhere in the world (e.g., the US) unfamiliar with the original expression. It also appears frequently as a deliberate pun.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/15 |

pike » pipe

Chiefly in:   coming down the pipe

Classification: English – nearly mainstream

Spotted in the wild:

Analyzed or reported by:

To “come down the pike” is an idiomatic slang expression where “pike” is an abbreviation of “turnpike.” (See definition below) It is extremely common, however, for people to say “come down the pipe” instead, which is clearly a reshaping based on a phonetic error combined with a semantic reinterpretation. Both are metaphors.

An interesting possible semantic difference: while a turnpike has barriers which must be overcome (as toll gates), a pipe generally does not. The original phrase using “pike” may have been meant to signify a “coming into prominence” that will occur once obstacles are overcome, while the eggcorn using “pipe” may emphasize that the “coming into prominence” is inevitable and only a matter of time.

pike³ (pīk) n.

  1. A turnpike.
    2. a. A tollgate on a turnpike.
      b. A toll paid.

intr.v. piked, pik·ing, pikes

To move quickly.

Idiom:
come down the pike Slang

To come into prominence: “a policy… allowing for little flexibility if an important new singer comes down the pike” (Christian Science Monitor).

—http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pike

| 9 comments | link | entered by thiebes, 2005/07/14 |
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