Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Those who are unfamiliar with Superman’s origins, or know him only through films, may hear “Kryptonite” and think “cryptonite”, with crypto perhaps representing secret or hidden weaknesses or frailty.
I think his cryptonite is his sensitivity and overall kindness.
He picked up so much healthy weight, AND he loves the treat options they have too (chicken feet & trout squares are his Cryptonite).
I don’t eat a lot of sweets but a PayDay candy bar is my cryptonite.
I would order 15 more boxes but I would weigh 300lbs and all my teeth would fall out – this stuff is my cryptonite!
Every knitter has their cryptonite — like an addictive stitch or irresistible yarn that becomes an obsession.
Everyone has their cryptonite. Mine is performing in front of an audience. I don’t feel that bad about it though, because most people feel …
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But are people importing the meaning of “crypto-/hidden” into the name bringing in a foreign meaning? The Superman comic writers seem to have gotten the name of Kal-El’s planet, Krypton, from the name of the element Krypton, a noble gas, and the person who discovered most of the noble gasses, William Ramsay, fashioned the name Krypton out of the Greek “crypto-.”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Long-sundered branches of the etymological tree crossing in the wind.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Nice image, David.
Cem, I now see, despite my katarakts, a kunning plan to konfuse Klarc Cent by transposing Cs and Ks. (You don’t by any chance happen to have a rarely mentioned great Uncle Lex, I suppose?)
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