Egg-corns in our mouths

[kerouac2]

I found this video absolutely facscinating because we have all done this.  Our childhoods were full of them until we finally understood what was actually being said, but even as adults we sometimes use them or inappropriately look down on the other people using them.  I thought that even the embedded ad for Nord VPN was clever.

This is still too fresh in my mind to think of any specific egg-corns from my past even though I know there were plenty, but perhaps the rest of you can provide a few in the meantime.

[mickthecactus]

Wossa egg-corn? Never heard of it.

[kerouac2]

Me neither until this erudite British video informed me.

[bixaorellana]

All of these are reason to incorporate two essential things in ones life: reading and looking things up.

Sorry, when an adult whom you know to be at least moderately educated consistently mangles words and phrases despite being corrected by others, it is hard to maintain respect for that person.

Yes, it is cute when kids do it. I was told that the mistake I clung to as a child was to pronounce that word as "missnake". We used to live down the street from a minister and my baby sister called him "the creature". She would get angry and insistent when told that he was "the preacher".

[whatagain]

A railways crossing is called un passage a niveau.

I never understood as a child why it was not wise, so i called it a sage a niveau since it was so wise as to protect us, this despite being corrected.

[onlyMark]

According to the definition though Bixa, these are not egg-corns, as irritating as they may be.
The substitute, the mistake has to be plausible.
Old timers disease / Alzheimer's disease as an example he gave.
To the Manor born / manner born etc.
There's non of the examples he gave that I've got wrong but I'm sure there has to be and I don't yet know about it.

[kerouac2]

I think I probably misunderstood 'free rein' in my early days, which was spent neither close to horses nor regents. And even when I knew the correct term, I never really understood the origin of it until I watched the video.

[onlyMark]

Tender hooks is often wrongly said.
Some of them though are of the kind Bixa mentions that are obviously wrong but people just keep using them without a thought.

[mickthecactus]

Mrs Cactus calls a scapegoat an escape goat and damp squib as a damp squid.

[onlyMark]

With not having English as her mother tongue but somewhere down the list, Mrs M mangles phrases up quite regularly. But I don't hold it against her as I would a true English speaker.
As an aside, she also translates sayings or phrases from one language into English that make no sense to me but are common in that language, e.g. someone being a warm showerer.

[bixaorellana]

A favorite I once heard was said by a woman referring to a past unpleasantness between family members:

"That's blood under the bridge now."

She was a pretty sharp lady, so it's possible her mistake was deliberate.

[kerouac2]

Mixed metaphors are always a favourite, but I have noticed that they are being done on purpose more and more often.

[lugg]

I listened to an interview with Susie Dent on Radio 2 today . ( For those that don't know her she is a stalwart of Countdown , a popular UK TV show which started in the 80s, involving word and mathematical tasks )

Anyway she was fascinating talking about many things connected to language but one of them was Egg- corns.

Anyway a little of what she spoke about re Egg- corns


Anyway my fave is one from my son who forever instilled in my vocabulary " heli-tot-tot "

[bixaorellana]

Just read this in a book review:

What a hard scramble life she lived ...

[lugg]

I realised just now that the link to Susie Dent on egg corns failed ... will try again

[bixaorellana]

Coincidentally, I just watched an episode of Ted Lasso with two footballers arguing about "pre-Madonna".

I love the accommodating chickens.

[kerouac2]

On another forum, I saw that someone was told to keep their short sided comments to themselves.

[bixaorellana]

This is from a review on Amazon about ammonia --

I liked it! A little goes along way and really does leave floor implacable. Left a nice fragrant smell. Just be careful when mopping as floor can be extremely slippery while wet.

[kerouac2]

Saw this one today: color coated itinerary

[bixaorellana]

My mind immediately conjured up the Old Testament Joseph dressed in his coat of many colors and holding his laminated itinerary all covered with post-it notes.

[bixaorellana]

Happy Easter!

                     

SPOILER: Click to show

It's an eggsorcism.