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.

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

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by Hal Kouns , 2006/08/11 at 3:52 am

    You have a category for misusages which are correct in another context? There’s nothing wrong with “weigh station” as a facility at which commercial vehicles are weighed to determine compliance with load limits.

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