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#1 2011-10-27 15:43:21

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

"Post humus" and "post humorous" for posthumus

It’s hard to believe that posthumous has not been considered in this forum. The spelling of the word comes from a folk etymology/deeptime eggcorn.

Latin expression posthumus, postumus, properly, “last”; hence, late born (applied to children born after the father’s death, or after he had made his will), superl. of posterus, posterior.

The h entered right from the beginning, pre-1500, by eggcorneal association with humare, “to bury”. Or as hinted in this etymology, perhaps it was another Latin eggcorn. The same root is connected to “earth, ground” and gave us humus, or decaying organic matter, and humility. That peaty connection may be tingeing all the post humus references on the web. But I wanted rather to present the following, as a sometimes-humorous malapropism. It is clearly widely used, so it’s possible that somebody somewhere has concocted their own justification for it.

Does anybody know the exact date of this interview? I would presume it was sometime in ‘93/’92. (The interview itself is an excerpt of a Captain Beefheart Documentary which was broadcast in 1994 featuring Zappa post humorously.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6fsaFkh … e=related\

The late, great Hank Williams post-humorously gave us this wonderful song about a cheating lover.
http://marriagediva.com/2008/02/15/chea … -part-one/

I was interested in picking up his essay, published post-humorously in 1842, “On Genius and Academics,” which condemns the method in which art was taught during his lifetime
http://www.meganandmurray.com/2004/09/g … ails_.html

Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, is the only person ever awarded with a double-wide white belt, this given post-humorously
http://www.judo-olympique.com/en/belts-levels-eng.html

I have this annoying tendency to leap at opportunity and think through all the details post humorously.
http://www.metropolishealth.com/newslet … n-sync.htm

A new book by Shel Silverstein has been released post-humorously called Every Thing On It and is in book stores today!
http://regator.com/p/253177277/nostalgi … f_the_day/

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#2 2011-10-27 20:18:53

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "Post humus" and "post humorous" for posthumus

You could have fooled me. I always thought the folk etymology was correct—that the word “humus” was in the word.

Last edited by kem (2011-12-11 12:11:05)


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#3 2011-10-28 02:31:44

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: "Post humus" and "post humorous" for posthumus

After this mortal coil has been converted into humus?


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#4 2011-12-10 20:47:26

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: "Post humus" and "post humorous" for posthumus

Here’s a twist we might have seen coming: posthumanous.

PETA awarded Heath the posthuman Australia Sea Shepard Conservatory Society posthuman award for his contribution and involvement to preserve the whales.
http://www.peopleschoice.com/pca/polls/ … d=20900008

This story as well as many others of miners will be published posthumanly in a book entitled “Of Mines and Men”.
Obit

In a collection of essays entitled The Mystery in the Open (La mystere en pleine lumiere), published posthumanly in 1926, he wrote of a kind of mystical brotherhood that has existed across the centuries
http://www.goroadachi.com/etemenanki/moonwalker.htm

The Late Olanda Draper was incomparable. His posthumanous Grammy Award was well deserved!
Youtube video description

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