stock » stalk

Chiefly in:   laughing stalk , livestalk

Classification: English – cot/caught merger

Spotted in the wild:

  • “It’s a bigger challenge for the entire community of quality management consultants to make sure that the ISO convention does not become a laughing stalk,” he said. (USJ-Subang Jaya, Malaysia, Mar. 19, 2001)
  • We have become the laughing stalk of the world. (Cameroon Post Online, Sep. 16, 2004)
  • Not only was the live showing a flop but Geraldo Rivera became a laughing stalk for the mainstream press. (LatinoLA, Mar. 2, 2005)
  • “There is no question that the grain and oil seed industry is in trouble but the live stalk and horticulture industry is doing pretty well,” said Currie. (The Pioneer, Belleville, Ontario, Oct. 13, 2001)
  • They would surely take there toll on farmers, people, and livestalk, not to mention the game animals as well. (Iowa Outdoors forum, May 6, 2004)

See also stalk » stock.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/22 |

stalk » stock

Chiefly in:   bean stock , corn stock , cyberstocking

Classification: English – cot/caught merger

Spotted in the wild:

See also stock » stalk.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/21 |

dawn » don

Chiefly in:   don on (someone)

Classification: English – cot/caught merger

Spotted in the wild:

  • It also donned on me that Chico is the perfect town to host the festivities. (Cal State Chico, The Orion, Jan. 27, 1999)
  • It donned on me as the students were singing, that this is one of only a two places in this country where every participate has a current temple recommend, which is one of our requirements for acceptance. (Steve & Bette Gibson, BYU Center for Entrepeneurship, Nov. 12, 2000)
  • The song marked a very emotional time at the concert in which, for the first time, it truly donned on many of the fans in the audience that this was going to be the last time they ever saw the band live. (Univ. of Notre Dame, The Observer, Dec. 5, 2000)
  • The Oilers are playing tonight and it dons on us that the cab driver has (conveniently) misunderstood which stadium we want to go to. (TSN Magazine, Nov. 19, 2002)
  • But as I walked back to the couch and the movie I was watching with my family, it donned on me the Red Cross rarely, if ever, solicits donations over the phone. (Columbia Star, SC, Feb. 25, 2005)

Analyzed or reported by:

See also _don»dawn_.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/21 |

naught » knot

Chiefly in:   all for knot , come to knot

Classification: English – cot/caught merger

Spotted in the wild:

  • I just could not figure out how to get better. I would dry fire, practice, all for knot. (Brian Enos forum, Dec. 17, 2004)
  • They need to get another single out soon or this thread will be all for knot. (Aimee Mann message board, June 7, 2005)
  • He said India’s nuclear tests have strategically changed the situation and world community should decide as to how to cope with it. “Non-proliferation efforts have come to knot, they are shattered,” he added. (Associated Press of Pakistan, May 15, 1998)
  • If by chance, one of your ribs is yanked off your side, no matter what the doctors do to make one normal, it will all come to knot. (Mutation Workspace, Sep. 9, 2003)
  • We think that the transitional institutions will come to knot unless there is genuine reconciliation, both at the political and social levels. (Center for Research & Dialogue, Somalia, Sep. 2004)

If something comes to naught, it may end in an intractable knot.

See also naught » not.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/21 |

way » weigh

Chiefly in:   fall by the weigh side , weigh-lay , weigh station

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Apart from ethnic or cultural ties, does the spirit of the community still exist in 1998 or has it fallen by the weigh side, along with so called family values? (Simon Fraser University, The Peak, May 10, 1998)
  • Another critic, District Leader Joseph Haslip, said it is unfortunate that Pataki is using “our neighborhood as a staging area for another campaign promise, which will fall by the weigh side after the Nov. 5 election.” (Amsterdam News, Oct. 24, 2002)
  • In his earlier days he had remarked that when he made $200,000 he would retire, but success got the best of him and his early retirement plan fell by the weigh side. (Nevada History)
  • Now let’s hope they don’t get weigh-laid by success and can deliver as they’ve done over the past two years. (Morning Brief, Jan. 10, 2000)
  • An allergy attack weigh-layed me from the first of Thursday’s presentations, but I did arrive in time for “600 Million Years of Mass Extinctions” by Douglas Erwin of the Smithsonian. (Cambridge Conference Network, Apr. 4, 2000)
  • We had been in Austin for a few days now and not experienced any live music having been weigh laid by Lovejoy’s bar. (Pat and Helen World Tour)
  • College Park was a weigh station for the nomadic man. (Univ. of Maryland-Baltimore Co., The Retriever, Apr. 17, 2001)
  • For us students it is a weigh station for some indefinably complex future that is more exciting, dangerous, and (we feel) ultimately better that what’s here now. (Hamilton College News, Jan. 28, 2004)
  • Vanderbilt cannot be a weigh station for someone’s first great smash hit of a book; we have to be a destination, a place to remain and work for the long and fruitful lifespan of a career. (Vanderbilt University Chancellor, Faculty Assembly address, Spring 2004)

The eggcorn _weigh station_ is particularly compelling, since it conjures up the preexisting sense of the term as a roadside stop where trucks or other vehicles are checked for weight.

See also weigh » way.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/21 |