Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Merriam-Webster says:
The – bear in the noun forebear is a combination of be – , from the verb be (or, more specifically, from been, an old dialect variant of be), and -ar, a form of the suffix -er, which we append to verbs to denote one that performs a specified action. In this case the “action” is simply existing or being—in other words, -bear implies one who is a “be-er.”
Blow me away. I’ve always (at least since before I can remember) thought it was from the verb “bear”, as in “have children”, making this part of the club of (suffix-less deverbal) nouns which denote the subject (rather than, as more commonly, the object) of a transitive verb. Eggcorn solidified into etymology.
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As David B said about the original form of “Rube Goldberg machine/device/contraption” (preceeding others like Ruth, Ruby, Rudy, etc. as the precession of the equinoxes precedes according to precedent:)
the forebear of them all: Root Goldberg.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2022-10-14 11:04:46)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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My problem hasn’t been with the etymology. It has been with the pronunciation and with variant.
I’ve tried to use a pronunciation that emphasizes the etymology (fore-bee-er.s), but I’m overwhelmed by the people who rhyme it with “four bears”
And why do so many people use the redundant “forebearers” It occurs about 2% as often as “forebear,”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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The etymology doesn’t determine the pronunciation. If it did, 99% of English would be pronounced differently. It is correctly rhymed with four-bears.
“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin
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