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.

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

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by Ken Lakritz , 2005/04/05 at 4:40 am

    ‘fleebag’ for ‘fleabag.’ 1,300 google refs. A place with fleas is a place to flee. e.g.,

    New York was a dangerous crime ridden fleebag of a place in the 70’s and 80’s.
    web.hashnyc.com/content/v…

    I remember we stayed in a real fleebag motel just south of Bryce so that we could get up early in the morning, see the sites and then head home.
    www.glamourmodels.com/cgi…

    … in 2001 I found myself staying at some VERY swanky hotels for about half what I would expect to pay for a fleebag with a bath in the hall in New York.
    www.scubaboard.com/archiv…

    … The setting is 1957, and Mom (Leachman) is evicted from her fleebag beauty parlor in Long Beach, California.
    www.sd455.com/moviecm.htm

  2. 2

    Commentary by JA , 2005/10/05 at 2:34 pm

    So…

    What’s the statute of limitations on posting a comment to the wrong page? ;)

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