On 1 Feb 2007 at 8:52, Mark D Lew wrote: > 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.
Check out the eggcorn database, created and maintained by an e- acquaintance of mine, Chris Waigl: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/ The ABOUT page of the site explains what an eggcorn is: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/about/ > 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. A friend of mine who is a linguist (and one of the main contributors to the eggcorn database) says that brain studies have shown that we actually store words in our brains by sound rather than by spelling, so that is the reason this happens -- "use" and "youth" are likely stored very close together in your brain's language centers, so it's not surprising that it sometimes misfires and pulls out the wrong one. This exact kind of thing happens to me all the time, sometimes with quite comic results. > 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. Straight homonyms are not usually by themselves eggcorns. It's only when a plausible justification for the different meaning is constructed that it becomes an eggcorn. My type was just a typo, probably caused by the same language/brain issues that causes you to occasionally write "use" for "youth" (or vice versa). The thing about those typos that always mystify me is that in the process of typing, I don't see it, or in proofreading, repeat the error and don't catch it. I'm afraid that one is attributable to that process which none of us can escape -- aging -- at least, not until we dye. ;) -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
