On 01 Nov 2006, at 12:01 PM, John Howell wrote:
At 5:09 PM +0100 11/1/06, dc wrote:
Does this qualify as an eggcorn? I ask because my last
contributions to Andrew's collection were rejected by the jury.
We have a current (and totally ridiculous) trade mark fight under
weigh here.
Dennis
Nope. That's actually the correct term. It's nautical, and refers
to a ship starting out, but has been generalized to any sort of
ongoing event or movement. But most people have never seen it used
in print except as "under way."
From _The Columbia Guide to Standard American English_ (1993):
A ship has way on it when it is in motion, and thus the idiom to
get under way [or underway] means “to begin to move,” just as the
idiom to be under way [or underway] is “to be moving,” regardless
of whether what’s moving or beginning to move is a ship, a car, or
a fund-raising campaign. The idea of weigh, as with an anchor, is
an error in either use, although in the past many reputable authors
have chosen that form. Under way and underway are both now Standard
spellings of both adverbial and adjectival uses.
http://www.bartleby.com/68/12/6212.html
- Darcy
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Brooklyn, NY
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