eggcorns

[low_delta]

Have you ever heard of an eggcorn? An eggcorn is a linguistical error where a expression is reshaped to makes sense, when the speaker doesn't understand the original saying. Sometimes this is because the term is archaic or unfamiliar, such as in "a mute point" rather than the correct "moot point." Sometimes, as in the term itself, the spelling is simply unknown to the speaker.


Here's a list. It's full of many commonly used errors. Ones that I see a lot of (even in the newspapers). Like phase/faze, peak/pique, pour over/pore over and rack/wrack (oops, that one's not listed).

But here's one I didn't know was incorrect. "pawn off on," rather than "palm off on".

Comments

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

I didn't know "pawn off" was wrong either!

Patrick will love this word.

[lonita.livejournal.com]

This is really nifty!

[sunshine-two.livejournal.com]

as long as the person who wrote the list, knew what they were doing ;)

[whathisname.livejournal.com]

That's a great list! I see stuff like that pretty often. I still remember the time a fellow reporter used the phrase "cut off his nose despite his face."

[banana.livejournal.com]

"...went at it hammer and thongs..." 8~)

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Took me a while to realize that it's "for all intents and purposes" instead of "intensive". Makes more sense, but I don't use it as much now.

And I never knew it was "palm off on".

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

I read the "pawn off" listing and left with the impression that the correct version is not used by English speakers nearly as much as "pawn off on." The latter has been in wide usage for long enough to be acceptable if not preferred.

"Palm off" sounds like a magician's term. I'll try using it in RL and watch the consternation in my listeners' faces.

Two of my favorites (noton the list) are "in lieu of the fact" (instead of the facts?) or "the powers to be."

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

"Pawn off on" is in mainstream use, so democracy beats linguistic purity...

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I can't believe anyone would actually say that!

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Me too. Notice that the OED no longer lists it as erroneous usage.

"Pawn off" seems correct. But thinking about it, it occurs to me that if you pawn something off, you're giving it away, not selling it, and the person recieving it probably doesn't really want it in the first place.

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

If you retain the pawn ticket, you're not giving anything away. When you pawn something, you receive hard cash. If the obkect is sold to someone else, you will never see it again, but you still have the cash.

The object pawned may have a high value or it may be worthless. For example, Bush & Co. are pawning off a war worth a half a trillion dollars in exchange for a priceless amount of security at home. If the war is, indeed, eroding our security, this has been is a con job of the highest order. I think war profiteers should be publically whipped. What were we talking about?

[mummm.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting Kevin!