Today's eggcorn

[Stan Brown]

I just added /The Master/ to my Netflix queue, and I noticed that the
description begins

"A heavy-drinking loaner named Freddie finds some semblance of a
family. ..."


--
"The difference between the /almost right/ word and the /right/ word
is ... the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning."
--Mark Twain
Stan Brown, Tompkins County, NY, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com

[Jerry Friedman]

On Oct 7, 8:31 am, Stan Brown <the_stan_br...@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> I just added /The Master/ to my Netflix queue, and I noticed that the
> description begins
>
> "A heavy-drinking loaner named Freddie finds some semblance of a
> family. ..."

Maybe he's like a dog without a home, an actor out on loan.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Guy Barry]

"Stan Brown" wrote in message
news:MPG.2adb5c2f5...@news.individual.net...

> I just added /The Master/ to my Netflix queue, and I noticed that the
> description begins

> "A heavy-drinking loaner named Freddie finds some semblance of a
> family. ..."

Is that an eggcorn or just a spelling mistake?

--
Guy Barry

[Donna Richoux]

It is my understanding that there is no way to tell the difference. I
wish the people who started the category had stated what the defining
characteristics are.

If they had only said that eggcorns involve a difference in
pronunciation, no matter how slight, that would have ruled out mere
spelling mistakes. But they didn't. Nor did it depend on having some
frequency of use. Whatever amused them was an eggcorn, as far as I could
tell.

--
Grumpily -- Donna Richoux

[abc]

Stan Brown wrote:
> I just added /The Master/ to my Netflix queue, and I noticed that the
> description begins
>
> "A heavy-drinking loaner named Freddie finds some semblance of a
> family. ..."

Did it say what kind of loans he extends, and who to?
abc

[Garrett Wollman]

In article <1krlwbo.1s33z9gnhiuk9N%tr...@euronet.nl>,
Donna Richoux <tr...@euronet.nl> wrote:

>Guy Barry <guy....@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>> Is that an eggcorn or just a spelling mistake?
>
>It is my understanding that there is no way to tell the difference. I
>wish the people who started the category had stated what the defining
>characteristics are.

They did. An eggcorn is a reanalysis of an existing word or idiom,
but it must make its own internal sense. As the Eggcorn Database puts
it:

The criteria of how to identify eggcorns have also been
clarified. Not every homophone substitution is an eggcorn. The
crucial element is that the new form makes sense: for anyone
except lexicographers or other people trained in etymology,
more sense than the original form in many cases. The more
brazen among the eggcorn users may eloquently defend and
explain the underlying semantics (metaphors, metonymies,
convincing but erroneous accounts of the supposed
history). Thus, thumbs down for _definately_ and _they?re /
there house_ (not eggcorns, just phonetic misspellings: the
non-standard versions don?t make any more sense than, or
reinterpret the meaning of the standard versions), but thumbs
up for _for all intensive purposes_.
(Chris Waigl)

-GAWollman

--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wol...@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993

[Jerry Friedman]

On Oct 7, 9:56 am, t...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote:

Mark Liberman wrote, 'Anyhow, we've been using the term "eggcorn" for
"relatively infrequent folk etymologies". Many of these have a
semantic as well as a phonological aspect. This includes the original
case -- "corn" is sort of like "seed", and the seed part of an acorn
looks sort of like an egg.'

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/000018.html

For this one, I don't see any semantic connection.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Mike L]

Say, what happened to Chris Waigl? We had lunch with her at the Tate
Modern a few years ago. I liked her.

--
Mike.

[Stan Brown]

"Just" a spelling mistake????

Seriously, I don't know whether there's an "official" definition of
an eggcorn. I had thought it was one phrase substituted for another
of similar or identical sound, but the Wikipedia article says "word
or phrase".

[R H Draney]

Jerry Friedman filted:

>
>On Oct 7, 9:56=A0am, t...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) wrote:
>> Guy Barry <guy.ba...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

>> > "Stan Brown" =A0wrote in message

>> >news:MPG.2adb5c2f5...@news.individual.net...
>>
>> > > I just added /The Master/ to my Netflix queue, and I noticed that the
>> > > description begins
>>
>> > > "A heavy-drinking loaner named Freddie finds some semblance of a
>> > > family. ..."
>>
>> > Is that an eggcorn or just a spelling mistake?
>>
>> It is my understanding that there is no way to tell the difference. I
>> wish the people who started the category had stated what the defining
>> characteristics are.
>

>Mark Liberman wrote, 'Anyhow, we've been using the term "eggcorn" for
>"relatively infrequent folk etymologies". Many of these have a
>semantic as well as a phonological aspect. This includes the original
>case -- "corn" is sort of like "seed", and the seed part of an acorn
>looks sort of like an egg.'

Synchronicity: a sort of visual eggcorn turned up a day or two ago:

http://cheezburger.com/6586906368

....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 7 Oct 2012 10:31:00 -0400, Stan Brown <the_sta...@fastmail.fm>
wrote:

>I just added /The Master/ to my Netflix queue, and I noticed that the
>description begins
>
>"A heavy-drinking loaner named Freddie finds some semblance of a
>family. ..."

Neither a borrower nor a loaner be...


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk