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order » able

Chiefly in:   in able to

Classification: English – questionable

Spotted in the wild:

  • “And in able to move on, we need to let go of the past and accept that life is not always fair. We need to accept every circumstances that are hanging in …” (link)
  • “… must be a Sop or founder in able to add/delete Aops.” (link)
  • “The MEA (Mail Encrypting Agent) may wish to keep outgoing messages for a limited time, in able to handle bounces and produce something meaningful.” (link)

Pointed out to me by Lia Carpeneti on 6 May 2005, who reported a very long discussion with friends about the acceptability (and form) of this expression. Could be a blend of “in order to” and “to be able to” (or, as David Romano suggests in a comment, a telescoping of “in order to be able to”), maybe with some contribution of “enable” to the mix. In any case, “able” makes more sense than “order”, so it’s in the eggcorn sphere.

Google provides thousands of examples. I swear I’d never heard (or seen) it before.

| 4 comments | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/05/06 |

tinderbox » tenderbox

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “The racial tension in the area makes it a tenderbox ready to ignite.” ()
| Comments Off link | entered by Lisanthrope, 2005/05/06 |

Alzheimer's » Old-Timer’s

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “His father was diagnosed with Old-Timer’s disease.” ()
| 6 comments | link | entered by Lisanthrope, 2005/05/06 |

auld » old

Chiefly in:   old langsyne

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • We sing “Old Langsyne” every New Year’s Eve. ()
| 1 comment | link | entered by Lisanthrope, 2005/05/06 |

hybrid » high bred

Variant(s):  highbred, hi-bred, hibred

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Well, Arianna’s driving a high bred car. In Bill Maher’s new book, he makes a solid case about driving gas guzzlng SUV’s financing the terrorists and he’s been pretty convincing on his TV appearances including Larry King.” (link)
  • “With respect to your purchase of a highbred car – did you ever wonder how the hydrogen gas was produced?” (link)
  • “We have purchased a 2002 Toyota Prius, electric/gas hi-bred car as our staff car.” (link)
  • “Why has no USA auto maker made a Hibred car like Toyota and Honda. These are questions we should be looking into.” (link)

Cites provided to me by Tommy Grano.

| 2 comments | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/05/06 |
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