On Feb 1, 2007, at 6:05 AM, David W. Fenton wrote:
Actually, that *doesn't* count as an eggcorn -- it's just a brain- fart typo, since I know the correct spelling for dyed-in-the-wool. The definition of an eggcorn is that the wrong spelling has been justified by some line of reasoning that is plausible enough to convince the user of the eggcorn that the spelling is correct.
Ah, I didn't realize that fictional etymology was part of the definition of eggcorn.
I've noticed that lately I've been making more and more of the errors where a word is replaced by another word which has a similar sound but is completely dissimilar in both spelling and meaning -- for example, typing "youth" instead of "use". In this list not too long ago we saw someone type "error" for "arrow", which is another example of the same thing.
I'm not sure what to call something like this. It's obviously not a typo in the traditional sense, where a finger hits the wrong key. On the other hand, the writer obviously really did know the word he meant to use. Clearly there's something misfiring somewhere in the brain process. It's curious to notice that sound is somehow involved even when I'm communicating words through my fingers in complete silence.
I think your "died" for "dyed" brain fart is probably in the same category, though since they're true homonyms with similar spelling, it's not as clearly identifiable as such.
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