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track » tract

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • “What software do you guys use to keep tract of the many different programs you all are in? I mean as far as the dividends and spends go and…” (link)
  • “Tenure Tract Associate/Full Professor, Genetics Specialty. School of Nursing. Clemson University invites applications for the position of…” (link)
  • “Other options include recessed or tract lighting above buffets or breakfronts.” (link)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Wade Hassler (link)
  • David Bowie (ADS-L, 2 May 2006)

Hassler’s comment (of 25 February 2005) in the database cited “keep tract of”. Bowie reported: ” I just got final projects in from the students in my graduate class, and one of them consistently writes about ‘tracts’ within the English major in her introduction,” and added that “‘tracts’ makes sense, if one thinks of the definition of something relatively small and separate from other tracts in the area.” Following up on Bowie, Larry Horn cited “tenure tract” (seconded by Beverly Flanigan, who noted that this one had even been used by members of her department) and “tract lighting” (lighting appropriate for tract houses, presumably).

The opposite reshaping, “tract” >> “track” is already in the database, here.

| Comments Off link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2006/05/02 |

mast » mass

Chiefly in:   flying a flag at half-mass

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • Flying Your Flag Half Mass
    When you are on the court and tragedy strikes or some unexpected disturbing event leaves you injured to the very core, you must step back and allow yourself to feel the pain. It is time to fly your flag at half mass. (DesignerLife Learning Cafe)
  • The flag is flown at half mass, or in the middle of the flagpole, on Memorial Day. People do that to honor those Americans who died fighting for their country. (link)
  • Has anyone been to Disney since the attack on the USA? I keep receiving e-mails that Disney refuses to fly flags at half mass. (The Magical Mouse forum, September 19, 2001)
  • […]
    The book you have written and passed to your troops
    Is missing some lines and some very big loops
    A country in morning for loved ones that past
    A country that stands by its flag at half mass
    […] (Sgt. Moms)
  • the flag flew at half-mass today
    to cover the scars, to cover the pain
    all the heads are hung in shame
    the flag flew at half-mass today
    […] (Almost Smart, Writer's Forum, Jan 24, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

| 4 comments | link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/10/27 |

ham-fisted » hand fisted

Variant(s):  handfisted, hand-fisted

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • The public sector unions aren’t going to let a team of handfisted amateurs take their overtime away. (Jane Galt at Asymmetrical Information, blog entry, August 11, 2004)
  • This goes back pre-9/11 to the transformation that Rumsfeld and people associated with him tried to do to the military, which hurt the army, helped some other parts. And he did it in a hand fisted way, which is his style, and he made a lot of people angry. (PBS, transcript of an interview with David Brooks, April 4, 2003)
  • However, this is a bit of a handfisted way of making copies and is what we in the trade call “lossy”. (uk.media.dvd, Dec 7, 2001)
  • However, the Bush Administration did not make quite that same argument. They could have but they didn’t. Was that just hand-fistedness? […] As indeed The New York Times has in a rather hand-fisted way confirmed for us now. (Hoover Institution, interview transcript, presenter Peter Robinson speaking, March 25, 2005)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Linda Seebach via Mark Liberman at Language Log (Hand fisted, August 14, 2004)

Pat Schwieterman reminded us in the forum that this relatively old and well-documented find was still absent from the collection.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/10/26 |

windfall » winfall

Chiefly in:   winfall

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • There’s no issue of taxes here, the city has a winfall of revenue. (link)
  • What may seem like a winfall to the employee of having an extra $50 in their paycheck every payday, puts not only the employee but the company at risk. (link)

The literal reference in the original is to ripened fruit falling to the ground when the wind blows. The eggcorn has become increasingly common, not only because “win” fits so logically, but also because it is used (probably originally as a pun) as the name of several state and other lotteries in the US.

| Comments Off link | entered by benevides, 2005/10/02 |

defunct » defunked

Variant(s):  defunk

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • On Saturday Eden will be having a tribute to the recently defunked club Soundgarden. (Taipei Times, Aug 26, 2005)
  • And please let me thank you for your efforts in your hatemongering Bush Bashing for your defunked party of fanatical leftists. (alt.books.tom-clancy, Sep 8, 2005)
  • I suspect that you take DEC being defunked much more personally than I do. (alt.folklore.computers, Sep 12, 2005)
  • The relationship between Eric and James went defunk. (link)
  • Timo Ellis and Sean Lennon were featured guests on Butter 08’s self titled release on the now defunked Beastie Boy’s Grand Royal Records. (link)
  • I think TRL is now defunk. Defunked by the accountants (the new COO’s and CEO’s) who read a balance sheet and only see a cost and have no imagination of the potential gain. (BritishExpats.com forum, Sep 1, 2003)

Analyzed or reported by:

  • Bill Findlay (e-mail of September 21, 2005)

The “final t/d deletion” label only applies to the not uncommon variant _defunk_.

| Comments Off link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2005/09/21 |
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