Eggcorn (n.): A word or phrase that sounds like and is mistakenly used in a seemingly logical or plausible way for another word or phrase.
Being a writer, at least a good one, requires both a facility for and a love of language. In the same way painters create images with paint, brushes, and imagination, writers paint pictures with words and a keyboard. To do that, a writer must understand nuance, connotation, and even the occasionally misunderstood and/or misinterpreted word. I’ve always been fascinated with the various ways language can be used; English in particular lends itself very well to all manner of deconstruction and reconstruction. For example, there’s a book out (‘Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy) that chronicles the use and misuse of song titles and lyrics. Things like “The ants are my friends/They’re blowin’ in the wind”/ “The answer my friend/Is blowing’ in the wind” have become American linguistic treasures- alternately entertaining, humorous, and indicative of the need for singers to enunciate clearly and for bands to set up their amplifiers better.
While listening to NPR on my way to work at the Portland Airport one morning, I heard Scott Simon’s story on “eggcorns,” which set me to thinking about how we use language and the ways in which we collectively fold, spindle, and mutilate it. Even “eggcorn” is a take on this phenomenon; it’s based on a woman with a predilection for writing “egg corn” instead of “acorn.” Since this is the Internet we’re talking about, someone came up with the idea of creating the Eggcorn Database:
Inspired by this new definition, some other Language Loggers decided to set up the “eggcorn database”, which is a brilliant and often hilarious compendium of mortification. The sources of each example are carefully recorded. “There is no deal in place but when all is set and done, something is expected to happen after the Academy Awards” noted Deadline Hollywood, on 23 January 2011. “But it could give the neocons a new leash on life,” wrote Andrew Sullivan on 9 July, 2007. On 17 March 2009 Forbes.com let slip the following sentence: “some of the individuals signaled out for retention may not be the right ones” and on 4 December that year a commenter on nytimes.com argued that “the National Organisation for Women and others have nothing to offer the average Jane and in consequence, have allowed Sarah Palin and her elk to define women’s issues.” I think we can all agree that the largest species deer in the world has no place setting the parameters for these kinds of debate.
Indeed; is it any wonder why I love language? Knowing Sullivan and his work as I do, I have to believe his eggcorn was a deliberate construct meant to tweak neoConservatives, but everything about and surrounding Caribou Barbie is an eggcorn looking for a place to happen. Unfortunately, now I have to spend the rest of my day try to wipe the image of Sarah Palin and her elk from my mind. Ugh.
