More Eggcorns -- Card Sharks
The Other FRAN
extolling the virtues of its low rate mortgage-linked credit card.
I always remembered the term as "card sharps" -- referring to those who
were guilty of "sharp" dealing when playing card games for money.
It might well have been that this was an intentional pun, but I'm sure
I've heard others using shark in place of sharp for this term.
Fran
Mark Brader
> An advertisement for Aussie Home Loans used the term "card sharks"...
> I always remembered the term as "card sharps" -- referring to those who
> were guilty of "sharp" dealing when playing card games for money.
I've seen it both ways myself. From the OED1+Supplement, it seems
that the original form is "card-sharpers" (1859), followed by "card
sharps" (1884). "Card sharks" isn't listed at all, suggesting that
it's a relatively recent variant.
--
Mark Brader | "Nothing is more sacrosanct than our professional ethics.
Toronto | Fortunately, I know a trick to get around them."
m...@vex.net | --Niles Crane, "Frasier" (Ranberg & Flett-Giordano)
Ben Zimmer
>
> Fran Barlow:
> > An advertisement for Aussie Home Loans used the term "card
> > sharks"... I always remembered the term as "card sharps" --
> > referring to those who were guilty of "sharp" dealing when playing
> > card games for money.
>
> I've seen it both ways myself. From the OED1+Supplement, it seems
> that the original form is "card-sharpers" (1859), followed by "card
> sharps" (1884). "Card sharks" isn't listed at all, suggesting that
> it's a relatively recent variant.
Not too recent, actually. Using Newspaperarchive.com, I can find
examples of "card sharp" from 1874 and "card shark" from 1884.
Jess Askin
"Ben Zimmer" <bgzi...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote in message
news:431D3BF4...@midway.uchicago.edu...
It was the name of a popular game show on US TV. I see from the Web that it
ran from 1978 to 1981, but I would have sworn it was on a lot longer. Maybe
it went into syndication, or the original shows were oft rerun.
In any event, it this is an eggcorn, it's a very old one. And you could
argue that the existence of the game show makes "card sharks" a legitimate
alternative (in AmE at least).
Maria Conlon
"Card sharks" was the way I first heard it (when I was a child in a
family full of card players, and yes, I heard them correctly). Many
years later, when I heard "card sharps," I assumed that "sharps" was
wrong -- a "hearo" or a "spello."
That "card sharps" preceded "card sharks" is a real surprise. What next?
That "thing" preceded "think"? (Of course not.)
Maria Conlon
Ted Schuerzinger
<jessaskinDON...@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:dfjgkm$a9k$1...@news.netins.net:
> It was the name of a popular game show on US TV. I see from the Web
> that it ran from 1978 to 1981, but I would have sworn it was on a lot
> longer. Maybe it went into syndication, or the original shows were
> oft rerun.
There were multiple versions. The first is the one you mention, from the
late 1970s, hosted by Jim Perry.
The second version ran from about 1986 to 1989 and was hosted by Bob
Eubanks. The producers of this version also produced a version for
syndication with a different host that lasted for about a year.
Finally, there was a third version with radically different rules that
lasted about three months in 2000 or 2001.
The 1980s syndicated version can be seen weekdays here in the States on
GSN, while the Jim Perry and Bob Eubanks versions can be seen on GSN on
the weekend.
--
Ted <fedya at bestweb dot net>
Lisa, if you don’t like your job you don’t strike. You just go in there
every day and do it really half-assed. That’s the American way. --Homer
Simpson
de...@aol.com
Kim Jong-Il???
>or a "spello."
J. Lo!
>
> That "card sharps" preceded "card sharks" is a real surprise. What next?
> That "thing" preceded "think"? (Of course not.)
I ain't never heard "think" BEFORE coming here--seriously. "Think"
sounds like a GHETTOISM: "I thinked it that he bee wrong, yo, fo
sheezie! He gotz to be thinkin' he-self anotha think, boo!".
Sara Lorimer
> In any event, it this is an eggcorn, it's a very old one. And you could
> argue that the existence of the game show makes "card sharks" a legitimate
> alternative (in AmE at least).
I recently was copyediting something that used "card shark." In the end
I decided to let it stay -- it's well-established.
--
SML
Gerald Smyth
[snip]
> I recently was copyediting something that used "card shark." In the end
> I decided to let it stay -- it's well-established.
You're a copyeditor and you write 'I recently was copyediting'?...g
Mark Brader
> > I recently was copyediting something ...
Gerald Smyth:
> You're a copyeditor and you write 'I recently was copyediting'?...g
Sheesh -- what *else* do you think copyeditors do?
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | WARNING: This Product Warps Space and Time
m...@vex.net | in Its Vicinity. --JIR
Robert Bannister
Sara Lorimer
Steve Hayes
A portmaneau word, bperhaps, combining the connotatiopns of "card sharps" and
"loan sharks".
swe have advertisements on street dustbins that deliberately use the common
eggcorns/malapropisms fou nd on the Internet, speaking of a "sight" when they
mean "site" and so on. I suppose it's a form of irony.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Steve Hayes
When the coster's finished jumping on his mother
He loves to lie a-basking in the sun.
And even copyeditors like to relax from spotting other people's errors and
enjoy the luxury of making a few of their own.
At least that's my excuse.
Jess Askin
> On 6 Sep 2005 18:05:35 -0700, "Gerald Smyth" <gerald...@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Sara Lorimer wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>> I recently was copyediting something that used "card shark." In the
>>> end I decided to let it stay -- it's well-established.
>>
>> You're a copyeditor and you write 'I recently was copyediting'?...g
>
> When the coster's finished jumping on his mother
> He loves to lie a-basking in the sun.
>
> And even copyeditors like to relax from spotting other people's
> errors and enjoy the luxury of making a few of their own.
>
> At least that's my excuse.
A pedant's lot is not a happy one?
Steve Hayes
That too, but what I had in mind that they aren't on duty all the time.
Jess Askin
> On Wed, 7 Sep 2005 05:01:26 -0500, "Jess Askin"
> <jessaskinDON...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Steve Hayes wrote:
>>> On 6 Sep 2005 18:05:35 -0700, "Gerald Smyth"
>>> <gerald...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Sara Lorimer wrote:
>>>>
>>>> [snip]
>>>>
>>>>> I recently was copyediting something that used "card shark." In
>>>>> the end I decided to let it stay -- it's well-established.
>>>>
>>>> You're a copyeditor and you write 'I recently was copyediting'?...g
>>>
>>> When the coster's finished jumping on his mother
>>> He loves to lie a-basking in the sun.
>>>
>>> And even copyeditors like to relax from spotting other people's
>>> errors and enjoy the luxury of making a few of their own.
>>>
>>> At least that's my excuse.
>>
>> A pedant's lot is not a happy one?
>
> That too, but what I had in mind that they aren't on duty all the
> time.
[Didn't mean to imply you're a pedant -- couldn't think of a synonym for
"copy editor" -- nor could Roget, interestingly.]
Or did I also get the G&S allusion wrong?
Steve Hayes
<jessaskinDON...@yahoo.com> wrote:
I'm a self-confessed pedant.
My supreme act of pedantry was when agency copy came to the newspaper where I
was working describing how astronauts were going to pick up rocks on the moon.
At the galley proof stage I changed every instance of "geological" to
"selenological". I admit that I did it partly to piss off the German-speaking
typesetters, who gave me a hard time. But it was still pedantry.
>Or did I also get the G&S allusion wrong?
Nope, you got it exactly right.
When a pedant's not engaged in his employment
or maturing his pedantic little plans
his capacity for innocent enjoyment
is just as great as any other man's.
R H Draney
>
>My supreme act of pedantry was when agency copy came to the newspaper where I
>was working describing how astronauts were going to pick up rocks on the moon.
>At the galley proof stage I changed every instance of "geological" to
>"selenological". I admit that I did it partly to piss off the German-speaking
>typesetters, who gave me a hard time. But it was still pedantry.
It's too bad it wasn't a Mars mission instead; they probably would have thought
you were trying to pull something....
I tried something similar when I ran across an article on President Buchanan's
ill-fated Camel Corps...they kept trying to call it "cavalry", which I insisted
should apply only to horse-mounted troops...I don't know what I'd've done had
they branched off into Hannibal's elephantalry....
(Is the study of rocks from the planet Mercury "hermeology"?)...r
Jess Askin
"Camelry," boringly enough, would probably be the hyper-correct word.
Stephen Hayes
R H Draney wrote in a message to All:
RHD> From: R H Draney <dado...@spamcop.net>
RHD> Steve Hayes filted:
>
>My supreme act of pedantry was when agency copy came to the newspaper
>where I
>was working describing how astronauts were going to pick up rocks on
>the moon.
>At the galley proof stage I changed every instance of "geological" to
>"selenological". I admit that I did it partly to piss off the
>German-speaking
>typesetters, who gave me a hard time. But it was still pedantry.
RHD> It's too bad it wasn't a Mars mission instead; they probably would
RHD> have thought you were trying to pull something....
I'm not sure what I would have used then - areology?
RHD> I tried something similar when I ran across an article on
RHD> President Buchanan's ill-fated Camel Corps...they kept trying to
RHD> call it "cavalry", which I insisted should apply only to
RHD> horse-mounted troops...I don't know what I'd've done had they
RHD> branched off into Hannibal's elephantalry....
So what did you call it?
--
Steve Hayes
WWW: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail: haye...@hotmail.com - If it doesn't work, see webpage.
FamilyNet <> Internet Gated Mail
http://www.familynet-international.org
R H Draney
>
>R H Draney wrote in a message to All:
>
> RHD> have thought you were trying to pull something....
>
>I'm not sure what I would have used then - areology?
That's where the smart money was....
> RHD> I tried something similar when I ran across an article on
> RHD> President Buchanan's ill-fated Camel Corps...they kept trying to
> RHD> call it "cavalry", which I insisted should apply only to
> RHD> horse-mounted troops...I don't know what I'd've done had they
> RHD> branched off into Hannibal's elephantalry....
>
>So what did you call it?
Well, this was more of a private rant, but I was thinking it should've been
something along the lines of "gimelry"....r