Eggcorn Forum

A news article is headlined Simone Biles on bedazzled goat: ‘The idea was to hit back at the haters’ , and begins

Simone Biles turned heads earlier this year when she emblazoned her leotard with a bedazzled goat. [¶] Biles has certainly earned the title of GOAT, or greatest of all time, within her sport. The 19-time world champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist is among the most-decorated champion gymnasts in history, and the bedazzled goat on her uniform is a reminder to the doubters and critics.

Apparently a more-or-less standard meaning of bedazzle nowadays is

2. decorate or personalize (clothing or accessories) using sequins, beads, glitter, etc. “I’d bring a box of rhinestones so I could bedazzle our uniforms”.

If you google bedazzler you get pages of

Hotfix Applicator, DIY Hot Fix Rhinestone Setter, […] Gem Picker, Brush, Trays, Bag, Bedazzler Kit with Rhinestones 4.6 out of 5 stars 440

The meaning has not made it into more standard dictionaries yet, but it probably will do so soon. The standard object of the transitive verb bedazzle in this meaning is apparently, as the above definition and example indicate, the item of clothing; but it is a small ―and, for English, almost to-be-expected― shift to allow the pattern of the decoration to function as object instead.
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Anyhow, it was new to me, and interesting. I still can’t stop speculating in my head as to what Miss Biles capering on a visually overpowered caprine would look like. Perhaps performances on a blinking, bewildered pommel goat will now replace the horse exercises as a standard gymnastics routine.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2021-07-20 09:56:48)