The Eggcorn Database

https://eggcorns.lascribe.net

84 37 2 years ago

eggcorns.lascribe.net

Zhyl• 2 years ago

I'd love to cross reference this against all the Eggcorns from the Adam and Joe show (and subsequently the Adam Buxton Podcast).

cyclotron3k• 2 years ago

Today I learn they weren't the ones who coined "Eggcorns"

zamadatix• 2 years ago

In case anyone else is confused by the short list that's just the way they use their main page. If you want a quick read list there is the browse page instead https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/browse-eggcorns/

mikrl• 2 years ago

The trailer was golfing with flames, there was nothing I could do buddy.

Worst case Ontario right there.

mortenjorck2• 2 years ago

There is another species of malaprop, one that has no name as far as I know, that I was made aware of by someone who was writing a character for a game who would use them copiously.

They are the intersection of an idiom or colloquialism and a mixed metaphor. Examples include “I'm running a little behind the eight ball” or “really went the extra mile in his shoes.”

devdao• 2 years ago

Fantastic! We must ask the proper authorities to weigh in, and invent something if necessary.

The language stack exchange, maybe? Social networks #linguistics tags?

Mixaprop can stand in as a name until we find one more true

TheSpiceIsLife2• 2 years ago

Sesquaprop

mortenjorck2• 2 years ago

I’m partial to “colloquialisions.”

nickburns2• 2 years ago

phrasal portmanteau. phrasmanteau?

nathan_douglas• 2 years ago

I’ve always liked “I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.”

TheSpiceIsLife2• 2 years ago

One bridge at a time

jachee• 2 years ago

Brooks & Dunn had a semi-popular song in the 90’s that used a variation on that: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZxIwlV9qOZs

lambertsimnel• 2 years ago

I just heard a podcast that mentions "we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it". There's a transcript here: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/qdtarchive/mixed-metaphors...

Here's the relevant part: "sometimes people also like to play with mixed metaphors. It can be a fun way to turn a cliché on its head. For example, I’ve seen people mix the metaphors “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,” meaning let’s put off the decision, and “Don’t burn your bridges” meaning don’t destroy a something you’ll need later. They get “We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it,” which combines the meaning of the two metaphors into something like “We’re ready to fight when the right time comes,” and still maintains imagery that makes sense."

"We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it" seems to be considered a mixed metaphor, rather than anything more exotic.

digitalsankhara2• 2 years ago

I have not heard that before. My somewhat litteral spectrum disorder brain implies the bridge is burnt before it is crossed.

Common ones I hear are "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it" - to delay an action or decision and "Don't burn (all) your bridges..." - leave a path open for a reversal.

sbuttgereit• 2 years ago

Here's a little video from YouTube channel "Rob's Words" that I saw which introduced me to the concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F12LSAbos7A

mds• 2 years ago

"We were in a vicarious position, but we flushed out a solution over instant messenging."

alanbernstein• 2 years ago

This calls for a bottoms-up approach

omnicognate• 2 years ago

It has manner/manor, but it's missing my favourite one: "to the manor born". There was an English TV series named that (as a pun), and probably a majority of people here don't realise that the original phrase is "to the manner born", from Shakespeare. Arguably it's not even an eggcorn but a phrase in its own right now, so maybe that's why it's not listed.

sundarurfriend• 2 years ago

I've never heard that expression in either of those forms

floam• 2 years ago

They’re both “right”, people with manors have manners, so I’m not sure but think that might dq it as an eggcorn.

yrro• 2 years ago

"content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8" but I'm seeing a lot of sequences such as "U+00E2 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX, U+20AC EURO SIGN, U+2122 TRADE MARK SIGN" where there's clearly supposed to be an apostrphe.

ImHereToVote2• 2 years ago

UTF-8, like pimping, ain't easy.

antihero• 2 years ago

It really is just save your files and database encoded with it and use the right meta tag.

losvedir• 2 years ago

Not exactly "eggcorns", but as a father of a 3 year old, I'm constantly getting a kick out of the incorrect but plausible words she uses. E.g. "bump beds" for "bunk beds", "de-odor-mint" for "deodorant", "screamer" for "speaker".

svat• 2 years ago

Love those great examples! But I wonder why you say Not exactly "eggcorns", as "incorrect but plausible" is pretty much the definition: https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/about/ (I guess maybe because they're not exact homophones?)

jes5199• 2 years ago

it took me a long time to realize that you have to say “eggcorn” with a west coast accent to make it sound anything like “acorn”

31337Logic• 2 years ago

Where I live, the pronunciation of both these words is indistinguishable.

mattl• 2 years ago

"It's all water under the fridge"

gradientsrneat• 2 years ago

Looks like the forum members have names for some the "bone apple tea" type phrases too, such as "controcorn".

billfruit• 2 years ago

I think in recent years a major source of these are OCR errors in scanning text. Occasionally while reading texts from Gutenberg project, one finds mysterious strange words which aren't found in any dictionary.

The Eggcorn Database

Related Stories