An eggcorn is the alteration of a phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements,, sense 2 creating a new phrase having a different meaning from the original but which still makes sense and is plausible when used in the same context. Eggcorns often arise as people attempt to make sense of a stock phrase that uses a term unfamiliar to them, as for example replacing " Alzheimer's disease" with "old-timers' disease", or Shakespeare's "to the manner born" with "to the manor born".

Language change

Eggcorns arise when people attempt to use analogy and logic to make sense of an expression – often a stock one – that includes a term which is not meaningful to them. For example, the stock expression "in one fell swoop" might be replaced by "in one foul swoop", the archaic adjective "fell" (for "fierce", "cruel", or "terrible") being replaced with the common word "foul" in order to convey the cruel/underhand meaning of the phrase as the speaker understands it. Eggcorns are of interest to linguists as they not only show language changing in real time, but can also shed light on how and why the change occurs.

Etymology

The term ''eggcorn'' (the original coinage was ''egg corn'', but quickly was contracted into one word), as used to refer to this kind of substitution, was coined by professor of linguistics

Geoffrey Pullum Geoffrey Keith Pullum (; born 8 March 1945) is a British and American linguist specialising in the study of English. He is Professor Emeritus of General Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. Pullum is a co-author of ''The Cambridge Gram ...

in September 2003 in response to an article by

Mark Liberman Mark Yoffe Liberman is an American linguist. He has a dual appointment at the University of Pennsylvania, as Trustee Professor of Phonetics in the Department of Linguistics, and as a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Scienc ...

on the website '' Language Log'', a group

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

for linguists. Liberman discussed the case of a woman who substituted the phrase ''egg corn'' for the word '' acorn'', and he argued that the precise phenomenon lacked a name. Pullum suggested using ''egg corn'' itself as a label.

Examples

* "chomping at the bit" for "champing at the bit" * "damp squid" for "

damp squib A squib is a miniature explosive device used in a wide range of industries, from special effects to military applications. It resembles a tiny stick of dynamite, both in appearance and construction, but has considerably less explosive power ...

" * "ex-patriot" for "

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

" * "the feeble position" for "the fetal position" * "for all intensive purposes" for "

for all intents and purposes ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

" * "free reign" for "free rein" *"in one foul swoop" for "in one fell swoop" * "jar-dropping" for " jaw-dropping" * "old-timers' disease" for " Alzheimer's disease" * "on the spurt of the moment" for " on the spur of the moment" * "preying mantis" for "

praying mantis Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...

" * "real trooper" for "real trouper" * "to the manor born" for "to the manner born" * "with baited breath" for "with bated breath"

Similar phenomena

Eggcorn is similar to, but differs from, folk etymology,

malapropism A malapropism (also called a malaprop, acyrologia, or Dogberryism) is the mistaken use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, sometimes humorous utterance. An example is the statement attributed to ...

, mondegreen and

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

. * Unlike a ''folk etymology'' (a change in the form of a word caused by widespread misunderstanding of the word's

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

), an eggcorn may be limited to one person rather than being used generally within a

speech community A speech community is a group of people who share a set of linguistic norms and expectations regarding the use of language. It is a concept mostly associated with sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics. Exactly how to define ''speech ...

* A ''malapropism'' generally derives its effect from a comic misunderstanding of the user, often creating a nonsensical phrase: an eggcorn on the other hand is a substitution that exhibits creativity or logic * A ''mondegreen'' is a misinterpretation of a word or phrase, often within the lyrics of a specific song or other type of performance, and need not make sense within that context. An eggcorn must still retain something of the original meaning, as the speaker understands it, and may be a replacement for a poorly-understood phrase rather than a mishearing * In a ''pun'', the speaker or writer intentionally creates a humorous effect, whereas an eggcorn may be used or created by someone who is unaware that the expression is non-standard. Where the spoken form of an eggcorn sounds the same as the original, it becomes a type of oronym.

References

External links