Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
I encountered this one today:
William Link on Columbo’s raincoat cigars and disshelved look
YouTube video title
There are lots of these online. Many are probably just misspellings, but I can see how someone could think of being disheveled/disshelved as wearing clothing that’s rumpled because it’s just been stuffed onto a shelf rather than properly pressed and hung; taking it off the shelf to don it would be “disshelving” it.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
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Dixon Wragg wrote:
taking it off the shelf to don it would be “disshelving” it.
Although I can see it as an eggcorn, I think your analysis is stretched a bit. I think the “shelving” aspect just merges into the misspelling to make the whole an eggcorn, without being exactly subdivisible by syllable (nor do I think it has to be). I think a large percentage of eggcorns begin as a misreading of the acorn, which accumulates a known word for all or part of it.
“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin
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yanogator wrote:
Although I can see it as an eggcorn, I think your analysis is stretched a bit.
Agreed. My ending with “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it” was meant as an acknowledgment of that.
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