Have you heard of eggcorns?
They’re off-quoted sayings that sometimes reel their ugly heads, and some might just leave you curled up in the feeble position.
Are they wrong? That might be a bit of a mute point. But can you tell the difference between an eggcorn and the real thing?
Linguist Daniel Midgley discusses them in one foul swoop on this episode of Talk the Talk.
Listen to this episode
You can listen to all the episodes of Talk the Talk by pasting this URL into your podlistener.
https://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlPromo
Show notes
Google Ngram Viewer: “There is plenty of, There are plenty of“
There’s Three Variants: Paper presented at LSA 2015 by Bonnie Krejci and Katherine Hilton, Stanford University (PDF)
https://stanford.edu/~khilton/Krejci+Hilton_LSA_2015.pdf
To Find Meteorites, Listen to the Legends of Australian Aborigines
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/find-meteorites-listen-legends-australian-aborigines-180952941/?no-ist
Australian Aboriginal Stories of Ancient Sea-Level Rise Preserved for 13,000 Years
https://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/linguistics/science-aboriginal-stories-australia-03272.html
Revealed: how Indigenous Australian storytelling accurately records sea level rises 7,000 years ago
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/sep/16/indigenous-australian-storytelling-records-sea-level-rises-over-millenia
Eggcorn: The Invented Word That Describes Invented Words
https://io9.com/eggcorn-the-invented-word-that-describes-invented-word-1629293915
This Is What ‘Eggcorns’ Are (and Why They’re Jar-Droppingly Good)
https://time.com/3902230/what-is-an-eggcorn/
Eggcorns? Here, here!
https://uwelingo.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/eggcorns-here-here/
‘Eggcorns’: The Gaffes That Spread Like Wildflowers
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/30/410504851/eggcorns-the-gaffes-that-spread-like-wildflowers
Google’s Ngram Viewer
https://books.google.com/ngrams
‘raucous’
https://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=raucous&allowed_in_frame=0
“A real tro*per”
https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1867
trooper vs. trouper
https://grammarpartyblog.com/2012/10/03/trooper-vs-trouper/
“exasperating the situation”
https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-September/102978.html
“firstable”
https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/category/english/
“supposably”
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/2014/supposably-is-a-word-but-theres-a-99-chance-you-dont-know-how-to-use-it/
Which one swooped? Fowl, foul or fell? (Aside from the obvious.)
https://glenjplayer.com/2012/10/one-fowl-foul-fell-felon-swoop/
the “bud” of someone’s jokes
https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/291/bud/
nip in the “butt”
https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/135/butt/
coming down the “pike”
https://www.word-detective.com/2009/08/mondegreen-vs-eggcorn/
“buck” naked
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/buck_naked#Etymology
Bu?? Naked
https://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001351.html
Butt To Buck, Start To Stark, Or Vice Versa?
https://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001959.html
Duc* tape
https://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/duckvsduct.html
Hear, hear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear,_hear
Is It Straitjacket Or Straightjacket?
https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/02/is-it-straitjacket-or-straightjacket/
“straight” jacket is more common in books.
People emit a ‘germ cloud’ of bacteria as unique as a fingerprint, study finds
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11883473/People-emit-a-germ-cloud-of-bacteria-as-unique-as-a-fingerprint-study-finds.html
Congressman grabs pope’s water glass, takes a sip
https://www.kansascity.com/living/religion/article36805737.html
Science Has Bad News for Guys With Man Buns
https://mic.com/articles/125687/science-has-bad-news-for-guys-with-man-buns
Science says the glorified man bun is a dangerous trend
https://www.aol.com/article/2015/09/23/science-says-the-glorified-man-bun-is-a-dangerous-trend/21240055/
#FreeKaren: Australians mock anti-radicalisation booklet
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-34355577
#freekaren: Govt’s school handout slammed for linking West Aust shark cull protest to radicalisation
https://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2015/s4319916.htm
Kevin Rudd: To the Good Burghers of Griffith
https://www.kevinruddmp.com/2013/11/to-good-burghers-of-griffith.html
burgher (n.)
https://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=burgher&allowed_in_frame=0
Etymology of borough, -burg, bourgeois, burglar
https://ewonago.wordpress.com/tag/origin-of-burgher/
Eggcorn: bi-election
https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/529/bi-election/
Image credit: https://pioneerwoman.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/eggcorn1.jpg
Transcript
We’re working our way back through the archives. If you think we should prioritise a transcript of this episode, let us know!
