Chickens come home to roast, editor's nipples in a twist
I ran across the blog Cosmic Variance this morning via a link at Shakesville or somewhere. There's an especially amusing post over there about the phenomenon of "eggcorns," mis-used English words or phrases that are not merely incorrect or ridiculous (like, say, a malapropism) but also occasionally result in some surprisingly accurate ways of putting things. A lot of the time, they appear to occur because a particular element of the phrase has fallen out of use, or the etymology of the word or phrase is not obvious or well known. Or they sound like words that are more commonly used. Sometimes they're indistinguishable from typos.
A quote from the Cosmic Variance post:
"The database has nearly 600 instances of common expressions in English which, via a homonym or near-homonym substitute (in lame man’s terms, a word that sounds the same), result in really oddly apropos but totally novel (and hilarious) coinages.Some of them can only be found in writing: "pour over," and "peaked your interest," for example, or "wetted your appetite." More than a few of them are jar-droppingly funny.
"For example, you might think you have free reign to use English how you see fit, but for that you’d need to be a monarch rather than simply riding on horseback. I am not trying to ferment trouble here. On the contrary, once you’ve mastered a few of these you might just pass the SAT with flying collars."
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6 comments:
That is awesome. Thank you!
Of course, you realize that it is your love of things like this that make some of us think you would make a great librarian. Just sayin'.
Yeah, those crack me up. And I'm looking into the librarian thing.
Thanks for the link, it was delightful, and of course, my first serious read and comment on your blog was going to happen when you put your nipples in the title. The site, and this post for some reason reminds me of the show QI where the brilliant Stephen Fry hosts 4 other not so smart celebs. One question yesterday was "What did Galileo see in the sky and said reminded him of an ear?" (I knew the answer which was, the rings, specifically of Saturn) The contestants, even after the answer were all, "No, no, I don't see it, doesn't look like an ear to me."
Stephen Fry got a bit stropped and burst out, "Okay, fine, sorry Galileo, you may have taught us more about our own solar system and the ideas of the universe than any other person who lived before but sorry, not enough, your ear discription just doesn't cut it...." (which reminded me to NOT ever piss off Stephen Fry when he wants to get a bit snarky)
Ha! You get the prize! How did you know I am and/or have ever been an editor? I try so hard to be vague about it.
Oh, I don't actually have 'editor' in my job title at the moment, but I do have to sling a lot of content. And some of your more common eggcorns do in fact get my nipples -- err, knickers -- in a twist. Fortunately my academic training, such as it is, is in Linguistics, so they also amuse and fascinate me. I totally love that site, and also Language Log (on the blogroll if not linked in this post).
I have never seen or even heard of this show QI. Nor the brilliant Stephen Fry. Sounds like I would probably like it, though. If only I had cable TV, or even broadcast. Doesn't sound like the sort of show that will come out on DVD.
well then it may amuse you that one of the few things I took from my linquistics course was the phrase I have as my answer in the Hotmail question. The professor always used to answer questions by finishing with, "So write that on your heart in letters of blood." His other great linquistic quote was "50 million housewives are never wrong." to explain how common usage migrates. I took the final with a fever and it turned out I got the highest mark in the entire class (because the textbook we were assigned ASSUMED that everyone was already familiar with latin grammar). It also gave me the lifelong use of the word 'copula' which I try and integrate into everyday speech as often as possible (so about once a year) "I think you'll find you are using an action verb when really your sentence calls for a copula." (after this I am usually hauled off and beaten).
Cheers!
I remember cracking myself up once; somebody kept using 'cupola' instead of 'copula.' I tried to explain it thus: "the copula joins the two parts of a sentence together. Like 'copulation.' A cupola is a thing on top of a church. As in: 'you're driving me fucking batty.'
One of those all-too-frequent 'oh shit, I am the only person laughing again' moments in my life.
My favorite, though?
If I hadn't already fallen in love with my lovely ex-wife when I found out she had a T-shirt that said "FREE THE BOUND MORPHEMES," I would have done so. I am that geeky.
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