Say what?
“Duck tape you say? Not in my tool box! That’s duct tape you quack! You need duct tape to repair ducts!”
This little friend won’t “duck” around the problem of eggcorns, the made up words that sound like the real, traditional name for something but have been substituted with new monikers. The dictionary entry defines an eggcorn as, “a word or phrase that results from a mishearing or misinterpretation of another, an element of the original being substituted for one that sounds very similar or identical.” – eg., duck tape instead of the original duct tape.
Now here’s a kicker. I asked an acquaintance if he knew what an eggcorn was. He promptly and brightly answered, “Sure I know what an acorn is.” I replied, “Are you talking about the acorn from an oak tree? I’m talking about the word eggcorn that people made up to replace the word, acorn.” Even though I gave my best enunciation, he couldn’t hear the difference. And that’s how it starts.
According to Wikipedia, “…the term egg corn (later contracted into one word, eggcorn) was coined by professor of linguistics, Geoffrey Pullum, in September 2003 in reponse to an article by Mark Liberman on the website, Language Log, a group blog for linguists. In his article, Liberman discussed the case of a woman who had used the phrase egg corn for acorn and he noted that this specific type of substitution lacked a name. Pullum suggested using egg corn itself as a label.”
Here are some of the most common examples of eggcorns. No doubt you’ve heard someone had “old timer’s disease” (alzheimer’s disease). Of course everyone now says “butt” naked even though the original term was “buck” naked. The “butt” form apparently came into use in the 1970s as opposed to the less crass “buck” naked which can be found in printed entries from the early 1900s. The buck, or deer, had smooth fur, which didn’t look like some of the furrier animals which lived in the frontier forest, so a “buck” was described as naked. It is also said that people on the US frontier referred to young, male Native Americans as bucks. The braves often rode their horses with no clothes, thus the reference, “buck naked”.
My all time favorite is beckon call, which has evolved from “beck” and call. In the Middle Ages, a “beck” (from the Germanic, Old English and Middle English) was a nod or signal from a person of power such as a king, or noble. He or she would nod or indicate with their hand to “come hither”. And if that didn’t work, they would call out to the hearer.
Here’s a list of less common eggcorns:
Flustrated instead of frustrated
Nip it in the butt instead of nip it in the bud
Take it for granite instead of take it for granted
It should be noted that Eggcorns are closely related to Malapropisms. Say what? A Malapropism is a single word that is mispronounced to create a humorous twist in a spoken line, usually in theater. The term comes from the errors in a speech that are close substitutes to the intended word. This style of farce originated with Mrs. Malaprop, a silly woman who spoke the wrong word at just the right time. In the play, The Rivals, the character makes mistakes that perfectly mock the situation. Some lines are: “he is the very pineapple of politeness” (instead of pinnacle) and “she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile” (instead of alligator).
My favorite malapropisms come ftom Archie Bunker, the dock worker, on the TV sitcom, All in the Family, who creates the perfect put down when he doesn’t even know he’s doing it.
“Back in my day we learned to keep things in their proper suspective.”
“It’s a well known fact that capital punishment is a detergent to crime!”
“It smells like a house of ill refute.”
Eggcorns give us a glimpse into a language evolving in real time. These word substitutions can either offend or amuse. Humor usually arises from irony or contrast. If you say that something is what it is not but there’s a joke in the saying, it’s an understated trick of language and it usually creates a laugh. You might say, it “trickles” your funny bone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/61/messages/530.html#google_vignette
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