front and center » front in center

Classification: English – and «» in/en

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Women’s rights in Afghanistan are (finally) front in center in light of the country’s new “rape” law.” (link)
  • “Wise moving to front in center” (link)
  • “Gay marriage front in center before Calif. high court” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Victor Steinbok (e-mail of 6 April 2009)

Another case of exchange between different unaccented nasal syllables.

| Comments Off link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2009/04/07 |

commander-in-chief » commander and chief

Classification: English – and «» in/en

Spotted in the wild:

  • Bumpy didn’t like it, but he was a soldier in the army of the Lord. The commander and chief had spoken, so all he could do was heed and obey. (Walter Mosley, Crimson Stain, in Six Easy Pieces, Washington Square Press, New York, 2003, p. 68)
  • “We are going to be presenting a letter that deals with Kerry’s unfitness to be commander and chief that has been signed by hundreds of swift boat sailors, including most of those who served with Kerry,” O’Neill explained. (link)
  • Why would a man who was running for the office of Commander and Chief of the US Armed Forces refuse to discuss his service in the military? (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

| 2 comments | link | entered by Lee Rudolph, 2005/10/18 |

rank and file » ranking file

Classification: English – and «» in/en – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

In transcripts of committee meetings, there may be some confusion (on the part of either the speaker or the transcriber) between rank and file and ranking members of the committee.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/09/11 |

soaking » soak and

Chiefly in:   soak and wet

Classification: English – and «» in/en

Spotted in the wild:

  • I guess with him being 130 pounds soak and wet he wouldn’t understand. (prevention.com forum, Jul 6, 2004)
  • “Last month, my apartment was so hot that I sleep most of the time during the day because I’m sick,” said resident John Lemieux. “But I get up in the afternoon. I’m drenched soak and wet. My chair’s soak and wet. My bed’s soak and wet.” (NBC 10 News, August 4, 2005)
  • So, there we were both soak and wet and I was pissed. (getgirls.com, dating tips, February 23, 2004)
  • The bus driver said the word “shit” and all the soak and wet passengers had dropped jaws planted firmly on their faces. (link)
  • I have a few of all of these at my gym, but what really chaps my a** is the petite “skinny” girls that come in “hawaiian” and very pretty,, but they can’t weigh 100lbs soak and freakin wet! (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

The _soak_ part of _soaking wet_ is reanalyzed as an adjective, or maybe _wet_ is regarded as a verb.

There may be an influence of the song title _Soak-N-Wet_, also spelled _Soak’n Wet_ or _Soak’n'Wet_ on fan sites.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/09/07 |

hue and cry » human cry

Classification: English – and «» in/en – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • There was literally a human cry from around the state during the hearings held on this Issue in House H&SS Committee. (Mental Health Assoc. in Alaska, Bridges Final Report, 2000)
  • This raised a human (?) cry in Boston and throughout the United States. (Kennedy Library, Race in the Military forum transcript, Nov. 12, 2001)
  • The January 23 CyberAlert distributed earlier today quoted CNN’s Wolf Blitzer as declaring: “There’s been an international human cry and it continues over the condition of Afghan war detainees being held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.” CyberAlert reader Tom Johnson suggested to me that Blitzer probably said “hue and cry,” not “human cry.” (Media Research Center, CyberAlert Extra, Jan. 23, 2002)
  • “Please join me in raising a human cry,” said Val J. Peter, executive director of Girls and Boys Town. (Associated Press, Nov. 15, 2002)

Analyzed or reported by:

| 3 comments | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/08/04 |