62 replies to this topic

[Ray]

I may be getting OT in re eggcorns, but here goes anyway:  in an early grad course on the novel my ballet background intruded into class discussion in a funny way.  I raised my hand to talk about Cervantes' Don Quixote and I referred to the novel as "Don Q" to strange looks all around.  Good thing I didn't have a fan at hand!

[Leigh Witchel]

Ray: "Don Q."

Class: "You're welcome!"

[sandik]

carbro, on Aug 16 2006, 06:24 PM, said:

Every year at holiday time, parents dress up their children and head to the theater for "The Nutcracker Suite," :rolleyes: an error inevitably compounded by the young ones who call it "The Nutcracker Sweet/s".

I know a couple of small ensembles who have actually used this (Nutcracker Sweets) as a title.

[sandik]

Helene, on Aug 16 2006, 07:25 PM, said:

Hans, on Aug 16 2006, 10:44 AM, said:

Can't believe I didn't think of this sooner; I believe it counts as an eggcorn although presumably the tv show with this phrase as its title considered it a pun:  "To the manor born" (it's "to the manner born").  Rampant.

And this whole time, I thought it was "to the manor born."  

So did I, but I guess it's about the manners at the manor.

[sandik]

My apologies for multiple postings, but I hadn't seen this thread in a couple of days.

This isn't really an example of an eggcorn, if I understand that term, but it is a favorite example of misunderstanding a dance term.  From an interview I did with Clare Lauche Porter on her career teaching ballet in Fresno, she said that the local newspaper 'corrected' one of her early audition notices, and reminded people that they should bring "pointed shoes" with them to the studio.

[bart]

Just heard someone say "the gig is up" (2 hard g's).  I'd always thought of it as "the jig is up."  Which is correct?  Here's a Link with an answer.

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...rds/gigjig.html

For ballet people, I'm sure the proper phrase is:  "The gigue is up."  And for sailors: "The jib is up."  (Or, possibly, the "jibe.")

[Leigh Witchel]

I'm finding more and more restaurants offering a "prefix" dinner.

[sandik]

Leigh Witchel, on Aug 19 2006, 03:55 AM, said:

I'm finding more and more restaurants offering a "prefix" dinner.

It's not fair when you make me choke on my tea!

[rg]

a New Yorker filler once noted an upstate NY eatery offering to cook your burger 'to your likeness'
and how many tell you your order comes 'au garni'
or recited: 'today's soup de jour'
or being asked if your roast beef w/ 'aye juice' - presumably au jus...

[kfw]

We all know "post-mortem." Certain people where I work refer to sizing up business opportunities before they go after them as . . . , that's right, "pre-mortems."

[Mel Johnson]

Well, doing business is always easier that way, unless, of course, you're a traveling Bible salesman....

[bart]

Not an eggcorn, but the distinction between "eminent" and "imminent" seems to have been lost.  "Eminent" is winning; "imminent" is an endangered species.  (In other word's, it's disappearance may be eminent.  Or, at least, pre-eminent.)

[Anthony_NYC]

bart, on Aug 24 2006, 04:46 PM, said:

Not an eggcorn, but the distinction between "eminent" and "imminent" seems to have been lost.  "Eminent" is winning; "imminent" is an endangered species.  (In other word's, it's disappearance may be eminent.  Or, at least, pre-eminent.)

And then there's "immanent," a perfectly good word which seems to have disappeared altogether, maybe because nobody could tell it apart from the other two.

About impact as a verb: I don't like it, but gave up on it when Robert Penn Warren used it that way in one of his best-known poems. If I recall correctly, it was first published in the New Yorker, no less!

And "waiting on": When I moved to New York many years ago, this drove me crazy. It sounded so odd to me. At some point, though, I realized I had begun to say it myself, and now it sounds perfectly normal. It's really no different than the difference between living ON a street and living IN a street. (In New York, if you live in a street, you're homeless.)

[papeetepatrick]

rg, on Aug 19 2006, 05:17 PM, said:

or being asked if your roast beef w/ 'aye juice' - presumably au jus...

Most extreme version of this I've seen is 'Roast Beef with Au Jus Sauce' in Westchester diner somewhere.

Quote

And then there's "immanent," a perfectly good word which seems to have disappeared altogether, maybe because nobody could tell it apart from the other two.

Anthony, 'immanence' was never used in everyday speech as far as I know, but is still used as 'immanence' and 'immanent' in all major philosophical discussions, esp. of Deleuze, Spinoza, Adorno, many other philosophers.  The cosmic force within instead of without things, etc.,

One thing a friend says is 'land up' for 'end up.' That can't be correct, can it?  I'd never dare ask her.

[Farrell Fan]

"Land up" for "end up" sounds perfectly normal to me, perhaps because many of the kids I grew up with in East Harlem (an Italian-American neighborhood at the time) landed up in trouble.