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statute » statue

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • The statue of the Council of Europe provides that every member “must accept the principles of the rule of law and of the enjoyment by all persons within its jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and collaborate sincerely and effectively in the realisation of the aim of the Council.” (Parliamentary debates, Ireland, 24 January, 1995)
  • Does the IRS have a statue of limitations on audits? How long do I have to keep my records? (link)
  • What is the statue of limitations on having to pay a hospital bill in Arizona? (link)
  • Persistent Borrowers or attorneys will be referred to the following court decisions holding that the elimination of the statue of elimination for student loan collections applies to all student loans, even those on which collection action may have been barred the U.S. Department Of Education under prior law: […] (link)
  • In many situations, there remains a climate of impunity for those committing crimes against children, as proscribed by international humanitarian law and the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court. (European Union Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict)

Analyzed or reported by:

It is hard to tell this eggcorn from an accidental slip of the keyboard: spell-checkers won’t catch the missing letter.

But it is also an example of “converging” etymologies, as both, _statute_ and _statue_ go back to Latin _statuere_, “enact, establish”, in both cases via Old French, which already had two differentiated words (_statut_ and _statue_) for English to borrow.

| 2 comments | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/04/04 |

worthwhile » worthwild

Variant(s):  worth wild

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • It has truly been my pleasure to be able to offer something worth wild to this wonderful group. (ArtsEdNet, Apr 19, 2000)
  • When, you actually can write a review that symbolizes something worth wild, try being a movie CRITIC again, until then Look for a new career. (Deseret News Reader Reviews, Dec 10, 2002)
  • Some argue that the Speaker Calibration and THX setup are really worthwild applications, but I feel they just add to the install, and that’s about it. (PC Perspective Forums, July 29, 2004)
  • As much as I hate Windows/Microsoft/Gates, the Longhorn project looks interesting and may actually be worthwild. (Tech Support Guy Forums, Mar 22, 2005)
  • How students spend their time in detention is important. If the student does nothing, there is no worthwild learning taking place, and resentment of school builds. (WikEd)

Analyzed or reported by:

See also worth your wild.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/04/03 |

pass muster » pass mustard

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • … then there should be no problem for those candidates with even the smallest minority of support (10% is certainly a reasonable minimum), to pass mustard. … (link)
  • … authentic swipes at the dreaded Hot Rod genre herein, the coolest by far is the band’s own composition, “Shelby GT 356″ which would easily pass mustard on the … (link)
  • … best to value industries and stocks within them, and finally we show how to write a really lazy column but make it look good enough to pass mustard, at least … (link)

About 520 Google net hits on 25 March 2005, though some of these are about passing actual mustard.

“Mustard” is hugely more familiar a word than “muster”, so the reshaping isn’t entirely surprising. Perhaps the sharpness and spiciness of mustard is part of the semantic appeal of the reshaping; “mustard” suggests a difficult test to pass.

In a sci.lang discussion (25 March 2005) of “pass a mustard” in the writing of a poster (who is possibly not a native speaker of English), Ross Clark suggested hybridization (that is, idiom blending) of “pass muster” with “cut the mustard”.

| 2 comments | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/03/25 |

while » wild

Chiefly in:   worth your wild

Classification: English – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • The biggest problem with most of these scams is Identity theft. Ill give you all the help you need to make this worth your wild. (link)
  • It will be well worth your wild to get these free credits!!! (link)
  • You are saving the native plants and letting the trees breathe. So it would be worth your wild to volunteer. (link)

Lots of usages of this phrase, I omitted several that seemed possibly to be a play on words (cruise line adverts, etc).

| 3 comments | link | entered by vinylrake, 2005/03/22 |

mind » mine

Chiefly in:   open-mined , go through one's mine

Classification: English – questionable – final d/t-deletion

Spotted in the wild:

  • CWM (Christian Witch Ministry) is Spiritualy open mined to all things. (link)
  • William Hodge, a former UW-Oshkosh anthropology professor, says there are natural explanations for most phenomena, but he remains open-mined. (link)
  • It is hereby declared that the Carleton University Debating Society exists to the following ends: * To foster clearheaded and open-mined discussion among the individuals, communities, and organizations of Carleton University on issues relating to Carleton University, the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and the World; (link)
  • The city becomes an multicultural city and is the most open-mined city in Australia as the city welcomes different races, cultures, classes, and sexualities from many parts of the world, it is most agreed that it is one of the most livable city in the world. (link)
  • I would offer advice but truth be known, fishing interests me just slightly less than football. But something else runs through my mine now. I am fascinated by their own sense of cohesiveness, achieved just moments before the actual departure and long before the weekend itself begins. (link)

I originally thought this was just a typo often committed by writers of personal ads and followers of alternative spiritual paths, but it’s use is apparently a lot more widespread than that - I found it on government sites, debate clubs, travel guides, etc. There is an actual mining term “open mine” which gives the mis-uses a plausible origin, but while “open mine” is not rare, the phrase “open mined” does not appear to be a common form of the phrase in the context of mining.

[update] Thanks for feedback from David Romano, who discovered several hundred occurrences of the phrases “running through my mine”, “going through my mine” and “on my mined”. He confirmed that a large number of these are “mind” related. A large % of these usages are either in transcriptions of song lyrics or in the context of urban slang so the spelling could be intentional. Perhaps we can attribute the origins of this back to Mark Twain, who in his short story “A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It” (1892) has one of his characters say “dey’s somefin on my mine”.

[added by Arnold Zwicky, 22 July 2007] Frank McQuarry writes with an occurrence of “of like mine”: Where else will you see this picture? This was done on July 14th and today being the 22nd and I have yet to have seen this image any place else. Of course I will pass it on but to whom . . . To folks of like mine. So here we are again preaching to the choir. (link)

| 2 comments | link | entered by vinylrake, 2005/02/25 |
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