The Eggcorn Database - v. 0.5

Marked as “questionable” because the link between the procedure and the digging implement is rather unclear. Still, on the ADS-L mailing list, Johnathan Lighter [notes](listserv.linguistlist.org…):

> [W]hen I first heard the word “spayed” as a child, the only sense I could make out of it was that they used a tiny spade (a sharp instrument) to do it.
>
> Presumably, others have been similarly misled.

A minority among cat (and to a lesser degree dog) owners appear to have a verb _spade_ in their vocabulary, the past participle of which can also show up as _spaded_, and a noun _spade_ (and sometimes a nominalised form _spading_):

* Our other cat just got spaded yesterday and she was up on her hind legs yowling and weaving looking at the other side of the water heater. ([link](homesteadingtoday.com/vb/…))
* Do you have any idea how many poor kitties get gased? Spade and neutering works but these supposed cat lovers let them breed like rats ([link](www.atsnn.com/story/12500…))
* So,in my usual blunt manner I wrote her back to send money earmarked for cat neutering/ spading and we would do just that. ([link](www.geocities.com/hermit3…))

Fenton supplied the first cite from the New York Times of 15 June 2005, in the “Overheard in New York” column; Fenton remarked that it seemed self-aware, in the sense that the speaker seemed to realize there was some oddity in the expression. The other, about actor/singer Gerard Butler, is the only (genuine) one I could find by googling. Can two swallows an eggcorn summer make?

The phrase “Nobel laureate” has also spawned such contracted forms as Nobelaureate and Nobelauriate — these are perhaps modeled on the single-word _baccalaureate_. The respelling of _Nobeloriate_ makes this variant a bit more eggcorny, as it seems to be influenced by forms like _professoriate_ (also reminiscent of _secretariat_, _proletariat_, _commissariat_, etc.?).

It seems to have been propagated by the Lifehouse song. The original eggcorning might have resulted from the onomatopoeic quality of ‘cling’ to describe the similarly onomatopoeic ‘clink’, or perhaps, ‘clang.’ In addition, seeing that it was juxtaposed with ‘clatter’, the songwriters might have gravitated towards not using the same ‘a’ vowel sound (assuming they meant ‘clang.’)

ausgeflippt on livejournal further suggests:
“Though cling only has the meaning of “adhere to”, it’s not too far-fetched for this expression because it’s a derivative of the the German verb “klingeln”, which means to ring, to sound.”

The first cite was provided by Neil Crawford on ADS-L. “I shutter to think” was also reported in a comment by Nigel Morphine on this site (24 February 2005). Googling “I shutter” nets quite a few web occurrences.

It could just be a misspelling, turning on American intervocalic flapping, which makes “shutter” and “shudder” homophones, or nearly so. The question is whether users of this spelling think shutters are involved. Lacking evidence one way or the other, I’ve marked it as “questionable”.