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  Sara Rosinsky • Shiny Red Copy

sara's Shiny red blog

Eggcorns are all around.

12/8/2017

10 Comments

 
Picture
Chances are, you've never heard of eggcorns. But once you know what they are, you'll start noticing them everywhere.

An eggcorn is a special kind of malapropism that makes a certain amount of sense. The word "eggcorn" is itself an eggcorn of "acorn"—because an acorn is shaped something like an egg. Other examples include:
  • old-timers' disease instead of Alzheimer's disease
  • feeble position instead of fetal position
  • self phone instead of cell phone
  • internally grateful instead of eternally grateful
  • rebel rouser instead of rabble rouser
  • cold slaw instead of cole slaw

To see (and contribute to) a long list of eggcorns, visit the Eggcorn Database.

Are there any eggcorns that you use or notice? Please share!
10 Comments
Andrew Duvall
1/1/2023 01:46:01 pm

I have never seen an egg corn. Where can I find them?

Thanks,

Terry

Reply
Sara Rosinsky link
1/1/2023 02:29:41 pm

All around! 😂

Reply
Elizabeth Halpern link
2/3/2023 10:29:56 am

Hi Sara -

Years ago I was once told to produce an ad stating that our service team was 'at your beckon call' -- I politely said to my boss that I thought it was actually 'beck and call' and he said absolutely not. Makes me smile now : )

Thanks for the great eggcorn info!

Elizabeth

Reply
Sara Rosinsky link
2/3/2023 11:17:20 am

"Beckon Call" is the name of an acquaintance's business. I've never asked her whether it was intentional.

Reply
Angel B
1/7/2024 03:39:20 am

My husband grew up with a guy who was a biker and got sober.
Poor Dick wasn't quite right in the head and made many egg corns. My favorite was when he told us about trying to get his biker buddies sober. He told them if they didn't get sober they could end up in a head‐on conclusion.

Reply
Sara Rosinsky link
1/7/2024 06:06:16 am

That actually sounds like an intentional AA-ism. But it's a good turn of phrase, either way!

Reply
Angel B
1/7/2024 03:44:55 am

When I was young I got a job as IT tech at a large real estate office. In my "spare time" I was converting forms to fillable PDF documents. I came across this gem in the foreclosure files. If you are in foreclosure your property may be sold at Pubic Auction.

Reply
Sara Rosinsky link
1/7/2024 06:08:58 am

I always tell people that if their writing includes the word "public," they need to do a search for the word "pubic." Spell-check isn't going to help—it's a real word. I've seen some pretty mortifying examples of it getting overlooked.

Reply
AJ
7/4/2024 02:58:54 pm

All intensive purposes… all intent and purpose

Rotator cup… rotator cuff (back part of your shoulder that is commonly torn)



Reply
Sara Rosinsky link
7/4/2024 05:07:42 pm

I just looked up “rotator cuff” to see if it resembles a cup, and I sort of wish I hadn’t looked. 😬

Reply

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