Eggcorn Forum

Discussions about eggcorns and related topics

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to if you wish to register.

The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.

Thanks for your understanding.

Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2008-10-02 10:29:01

2Loquacious
Member
Registered: 2006-08-10
Posts: 2

Stroke instead of Stoke

Just had a rousing morning argument with my husband about this one.

He was referring to an activity that would “stroke one’s creativity.” And I said that he really meant to “stoke one’s creativity.”

He insists that he wants to “pet” the creativity of the person to make it feel loved and encouraged and I told him he was nuts.

Offline

 

#2 2008-10-02 10:51:00

JonW719
Eggcornista
From: Colorado
Registered: 2007-09-05
Posts: 285

Re: Stroke instead of Stoke

Interesting one, 2Loquacious. We talk about stroking someone’s ego, but I think we also stoke [the embers of] creativity to fan them into flame. Your husband’s imagery makes it a potential eggcorn, but it seems more like an idiom blend to me.


Feeling quite combobulated.

Offline

 

#3 2008-10-06 09:24:37

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

Re: Stroke instead of Stoke

JonW719 wrote:

Interesting one, 2Loquacious. We talk about stroking someone’s ego, but I think we also stoke [the embers of] creativity to fan them into flame. Your husband’s imagery makes it a potential eggcorn, but it seems more like an idiom blend to me.

Hmm. For me it is clearly an eggcorn, and the report from the eggcorner of what he meant cinches the deal. (Yes, I did that on purpose.) Again, I don’t see how the likelihood of it being an idiom blend diminishes or otherwise affects the likelihood of it being an eggcorn. Idiom blending has to do with how one of these beautiful structures might arise; eggcornicity has to do with the result. An idiom blend is an eggcorn if the result of the blending (a) involves a reanalysis, substituting plausible new imagery for the imagery of the original (the acorn), (b) sounds/looks enough like the acorn that the difference is not highly noticeable (in either the spoken or the written mode) and© is standard for at least some speaker(s).

Item (b), and at least the plausibility, the “making sense” aspect, of (a), both make for the kind of situation that is propitious for inadvertent blendings, whether of words, phrases, or what have you. An insecure grasp of the acorn, which is almost necessary to produce©, is also propitious for blending and for malapropisms—which also like (b). Malapropism and blending (which are very far from being mutually exclusive categories) both can produce eggcorns, given the proper circumstances.

btw and fwiw, I think I stoke flames rather than embers. I get the idea of shovelling or pouring on lots of fuel rather than carefully adding fuel, strategically placed, to a fire in danger of going out. I can fan either embers or flames.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-10-06 09:28:06)


*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 .)

Offline

 

#4 2008-10-06 10:55:32

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: Stroke instead of Stoke

David Tuggy wrote:

An idiom blend is an eggcorn if the result of the blending (a) involves a reanalysis, substituting plausible new imagery for the imagery of the original (the acorn), (b) sounds/looks enough like the acorn that the difference is not highly noticeable (in either the spoken or the written mode) and© is standard for at least some speaker(s).

The problem for me is that this seems to work best in precisely those situations where one doesn’t need to invoke a blend to explain a reshaping. Could this be a blend? Yes, I think so. Could it have arisen if “stroke your ego” didn’t exist in the language but everything else did? Yes, absolutely. And nothing here proves to me that the speaker was thinking of “stroke one’s ego” on any level.

And David, this sentence has me baffled:

Idiom blending has to do with how one of these beautiful structures might arise; eggcornicity has to do with the result.

Uh, uh….

Offline

 

#5 2008-10-07 09:52:58

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

Re: Stroke instead of Stoke

(I’ll answer this over on the discussion —Eggcornology— part of the site.)

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-10-08 08:34:13)


*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 .)

Offline

 

#6 2018-02-06 15:16:59

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

Re: Stroke instead of Stoke

Nobody seems to have mentioned it yet, so I’ll just point out that stoke << >> stroke is a round-tripper.

Of course Sisi stoked his ego on Charlie Rose saying that Trump would make a good leader…
tweet

The teacher had stoked his ego by naming him the math whiz of the class…
article

He was careful to pick an easy target, though. And he won. Stoked his ego.
comment

...he greased him with tanning bed oil and stoked his ego by calling him a winner…
blog

Over the next hour I took control of his fantasies, whispered naughty words in his ear, stoked his ego, teased him, made him feel powerful and desired and strong and masculine.
manipulation instructions

Last edited by Dixon Wragg (2018-02-06 15:17:55)

Offline

 

Board footer

Powered by PunBB
PunBB is © 2002–2005 Rickard Andersson
Individual posters retain the copyright to their posts.

RSS feeds: active topicsall new posts