Comments on: Mark Peters on Eggcorns

By: kalgirls

kalgirls — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:53:29 +0000

A former boss was a walking eggcorn. Some of the things he came up with were real head-scratchers. One of my favorites is “alley cart.” It took me a couple of minutes to figure out he meant “a la carte.”

By: Facebook User

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:56:27 +0000

I always cringe when I hear New Yorkers say they are “standing on line” at the supermarket or bank. I’m sure it predates the Internet and might technically be correct if you are standing ON a line. Otherwise, it’s just bonkers.

By: Jason Murphy

Jason Murphy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:02:54 +0000

I’ve written about this on my blog too!http://thomasthethinkengine.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/garbledy-gook/Here are some gems:Garbledy-gookmisunderestimateintertwingled

By: Jason Murphy

Jason Murphy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:00:02 +0000

I’ve written about this on my blog too!http://thomasthethinkengine.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/garbledy-gook/Here are some gems:Garbledy-gookmisunderestimateintertwingled

By: encarnacion

encarnacion — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:22:42 +0000

I recently made up one, but in Spanish. Instead of “cien por ciento”,
which is literally “one hundred for/divided by hundred”, or “one
hundred percent”, I say “cien por cierto”, literally “one hundred for
sure” when confirming something to someone in Spanish.

By: rkt

rkt — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:23:11 +0000

My wife came up with a good eggcorn when she was exasperated at me one day. “Do you always have to be so skeptimistic?” she asked.

By: KE

KE — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:55:26 +0000

Oh my goodness! My Mom gets so angry when I correct her, but wow! It really is Afghanistan, NOT Afaghanistan. My friend constantly says she was taken back by something, a coworker is always very pacific about things,and a friend from high school says “Holy Cal!” Really.

By: phil pelletier

phil pelletier — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:37:58 +0000

For many decades, I have resisted using the term “spitting image” to describe a child looking remarkably like a parent. I used the term “Splitten’ image” to note that the parent was “split in half” to firm the child. However, the term “spitting image” is correct in that in the deep south during the era of slavery, a slave would often refer to the child of the plantation owner as being the “spirit and image of his father”. However, due to the poor linguistics of the times (from both slaves and slave owners) the term sounded like “spitting image” when spoken in the local deep south dialect.

I still can’t bring myself to say it. I like tp morph my own words, like “splitten”

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:02:38 +0000

During a day at Disney World our very tired four-year-old grandson inquired as to when we were going “back to the hometel.”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:57:39 +0000

It's definitely "half-mast" not "half-staff" as regards ships. [Furthermore, it's "raising/lowering the flag TO half-mast" or "flying the flag AT half-mast;" "raising the flag at half-mast' is both logically and grammatically faulty.] You, anonymous commenter, might want to check your facts next time before presenting suppositions like you know what you're talking about. Especially when the topic is, itself, erroneous language.