Here's another from Johanna, with some great examples or eggcorns, folk
etymologies, and mondegreens.
Herb
________________________________
From: Johanna Rubba [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2006 11:00 PM
To: Stahlke, Herbert F.W.
Cc: Johanna Rubba
Subject: Re: Question: Language change and malapropism
Hi, Herb,
In the awful rush of exam week, I don't have time to try to fix the
!@#*&@! problem with my ATEG account. So, here we go ... could you post
this for me?
Below is a list of folk etymologies that I've collected both from people
who sent them to me and from my students' papers. Some of them are real
corkers!! Among my favorites are "devil-make-hair" and "sir name".
As the "eggcorn" site explains, these are called folk etymologies in
historical linguistics. Certainly, a main source of these is lack of
exposure to the words and phrases in print (i.e., not reading much). If
you see a phrase over and over, you memorize its spelling even if it
doesn't make sense. Folk etyms. arise mainly under a couple of different
conditions: the word or phrase is borrowed or archaic, so the user
analyzes it into familiar words, even if there isn't much sense to the
result, as in British "sparrowgrass" for "asparagus" and "ashfelt" for
"asphalt". In other cases, and I find these the most interesting ones,
the user re-analyzes the phrase in a way that still preserves a lot of
the meaning.
A few of my favorites are not in this list, but in another one that
features errors in spelling based on phonological processes (changes in
sounds in rapid speech), but these can then lead to a folk etym. Two of
my favorite examples are "upmost" for "utmost" and "deep-seeded" for
"deep-seated". "Utmost" means an extreme degree of something, and "up"
is often used metaphorically to indicate high (!) degrees/quantities or
absolutes of something, as in "fill it up", "eat it up" (meaning to the
fullest extent possible). "Most", of course, also means to the fullest
extent, or to the greater extent among others being compared. Now "ut"
is not a terribly meaningful item (I'd bet it comes from "out", which
can also be used to indicate an extreme degree of something (as in "out
and out"). Combine that with the typical metaphorical meaning of "up"
and the fact that a /t/ is very likely to be pronounced /p/ when it
precedes an /m/, and you've got a quite reasonable reanalysis! I can see
something similar happening with "deep-seeded". To use "seat" to mean a
(even metaphorical) location is getting rather arcane: "The mind is the
seat of the soul" and so on.
I don't think usages like "pre-Madonna" necessarily mean that the users
don't understand the concept in the same way. Madonna is known, after
all, to be somewhat of a diva, so maybe divas who went before her had
similar qualities. It's a stretch, but people will struggle to get
meaning out of language against the most daunting odds. "Take for
granite", "fool-hearty", "part of the course" (who plays golf often
enough to know the meaning?), "mind of information" ("mine of
information" is usually used in reference to a person), and "chicken
feet" all land somewhere in the range of the intended meaning. We "take
for granite" things that might be said to be "set in stone"; who would
want to get paid in "chicken feet"? (And, who has enough experience with
feeding chickens to think it through?) For years, I thought "toe the
line" was "tow the line". I imagined some sort of shipping origin, in
which deck hands had to pull in the heavy rope (line) attached to the
anchor (or something). Deck sailors don't have much choice about what
they do -- they have to follow orders. And I love "sir name" -- a
person's last name is used in polite forms of address, as in "Yes, Mr.
Churchill", and so is "sir". So if you would call someone "sir", chances
are you would use his last name when addressing him by name.
Many of these examples are howlers (Minneapolis in winter might well be
called an "ice burg"), but, as with many types of error, we are quick to
see only their bad side. We have lots of expressions for which only the
idiomatic meaning is known (who worries about "kicking" and "buckets" in
"kick the bucket"?), so it's not surprising that people might assume
that a nonsense phrase (like "four-stair-heat") might be in circulation
(esp. those with little experience in home improvement). And examples
like "sir name" show that the errors are not always entirely without
logic.
And you gotta love "condonation".
Phrases/idioms (folk etymologies)
condonation connotation
jack of all traits jack of all trades
ice burg iceberg
in term in turn
in tack intact
it's a doggy-dog world it's a dog-eat-dog world
part of the course par for the course
take for granite take for granted
all of the sudden all of a sudden
tow the line toe the line
shoe-in shoo-in
four-stair heat forced air heat
devil-make-hair attitude devil-may-care
to all intensive purposes to all intents and purposes
a mind of information mine of information
spitting image spit and image
harthardedness hard-heartedness
chicken-feet chicken-feed
another words in other words
up and Adam up and at 'em
fool-hearty foolhardy
a worth-wild one a worthwhile one
one in the same one and the same
a bandit warehouse abandoned warehouse
at my beckoned call at my beck and call
j-walking jaywalking (11/04)
pre-Madonna prima donna
an old wise tale an old wives' tale
doughing out money doling out money
sir name surname
death rows death throes
escape goat scapegoat
post-pardon depression post-partum depression
in term in turn
star courterback star quarterback
Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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