thumb|Cafe chalkboard advertising a "pre fixed" menu, an eggcorn of the French [[prix fixe (fixed price)]]

An eggcorn is the alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements, creating a new phrase that is plausible when used in the same context. Thus, an eggcorn is an unexpectedly fitting or creative malapropism. Eggcorns often arise as people attempt to make sense of a stock phrase that uses a term unfamiliar to them, as for example replacing "Alzheimer's disease" with "old-timers' disease",) being replaced with the more common word "foul" in order to convey the cruel/underhand meaning of the phrase as the speaker understands it. In his article, Liberman discussed the case of a woman who had used the phrase egg corn for acorn, and he noted that this specific type of substitution lacked a name. Pullum suggested using egg corn itself as a label.

Regarding this original "egg corn", Liberman noted: "the author of this mis-hearing may be a speaker of the dialect in which 'beg' has the same vowel as the first syllable of 'bagel'. For these folks, 'egg corn' and 'acorn' are really homonyms, if the first is not spoken so as to artificially separate the words."

  • "beckon call" for "beck and call"
  • "damp squid" for "damp squib"
  • "deep seeded" for "deep seated"
  • "ex-patriot" for "expatriate"
  • "the feeble position" for "the fetal position"
  • "for all intensive purposes" for "for all intents and purposes"
  • "free reign" for "free rein"
  • "in one foul swoop" for "in one fell swoop"
  • "jar-dropping" for "jaw-dropping"
  • "old-timers' disease" for "Alzheimer's disease"
  • "on the spurt of the moment" for "on the spur of the moment"
  • "peaked my interest" for "piqued my interest"
  • "preying mantis" for "praying mantis"
  • "ripe with..." for "rife with..."
  • "to the manor born" for "to the manner born"

Similar phenomena

Eggcorns are similar to but distinct from several other linguistic expressions:

  • Where a folk etymology is a change in the form of a word caused by widespread misunderstanding of the word's etymology, an eggcorn may be limited to one person rather than being used generally within a speech community. An eggcorn must still retain something of the original meaning,

Where the spoken form of an eggcorn sounds the same as the original, it becomes a type of homophone.

References

Further reading

  • Harbeck, James (2010-06-02), "My Veil of Tears". Retrieved 2012-01-26.
  • Liberman, Mark, and Geoffrey K. Pullum (2006), Far from the Madding Gerund and Other Dispatches from Language Log. Wilsonville, OR: William, James & Co.
  • Liberman, Mark (2003-09-23), "Egg corns: folk etymology, malapropism, mondegreen, ???", Language Log (weblog). Retrieved 2009-06-23.
  • Peters, Mark (2006-08-09), "Like a Bowl in a China Shop", The Chronicle of Higher Education: Chronicle Careers. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
  • Eggcorn database