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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 |

bandy » banty

Chiefly in:   bantied about

Classification: English – questionable

Heard on CNN by one of the young women announcers. Heard today (Aug 3, 2005), but have heard it in the past. She probably intends to say “bandied about”, and is mixing the word “bandy” with “banter”.

[Marked “questionable” while waiting for other instances beyond a possible one-time production error. CW.]

| 1 comment | link | entered by durk183, 2005/08/04 |

impact(ed) » inpacked

Variant(s):  impacked

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • I heard you guys when you spoke at Metro Community Church in Edwardsville Illinois and I can not tell you guys how much you inpacked my life. (Turnbull Ministries guestbook, Mar. 4, 2004)
  • you can see the bullet inpacked on them and see the hide jump from the shock. (Water and Woods forum, May 20, 2004)
  • Other than grinding and clenching your teeth (stress/bracing) at night, my suggestion would be that your sinuses are impacked, etc. (Ask Dr. Stoll bulletin board, Sep. 26, 2003)
  • Does an Oral Surgeon normally have the help of an assistant during a scheduled appointment to extract 4 impacked wisdom teeth? (New Jersey Dental Association, Ask a Dentist, Mar. 19, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/08/02 |

hear » here

Chiefly in:   here, here

Classification: English – nearly mainstream

Spotted in the wild:

  • With regard to the E-fingerprinting of welfare recipients, and its potential long range spread to other social service provisions, I say here, here! (Computer Underground Digest, July 27, 1993)
  • Thank you very much Michael and I can only say here, here, and I’ll tell Mayor Campbell you did a wonderful job of representing him here today and we are very pleased to have you to be here at this session. (SSA public forum transcript, June 10, 1997)
  • Here here! I agree completely. (OSNews forum, July 14, 2003)

Analyzed or reported by:

Googlehits for _here, here, I agree_ outnumber those for _hear, hear, I agree_ about 2 to 1.

See explanations for the origin of the expression hear, hear, and hear.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/08/02 |

passed » past

Chiefly in:   past away

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

  • The Vatican says Pope John Paul II after developing a high fever has past away. (link)

Death marking off the past…

Edited by Ben Zimmer: Marked questionable, for the same reasons discussed by Arnold Zwicky regarding past » passed:

Larry Horn noted [on the American Dialect Society mailing list], “this one is endemic, as is its mirror-image (“past” for “passed”).” And I added, “indeed. and it’s hard to tell whether these are eggcornic or just spelling errors. the semantics is close, and they were originally the same word. see MWDEU on ‘passed, past’.”

| Comments Off link | entered by Sravana Reddy, 2005/07/31 |
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