Dean Christakos« A real, live snowstorm | Main | Today in Interesting Numbers »
February 17, 2006
More Fodder for Language Nit-Pickers
An "eggcorn" is an misuse of a word within a phrase, when what was intended was a similar-sounding word. "For all intensive purposes" is one of the more irritating examples of this.
Newly brought to my attention is the Eggcorn Database which tracks instances of word misuse that appear in the public media. Some of these, like substituting "daring-do" for "derring-do" are understandable mistakes from unsophisticated writers (similarly, substituting "straight and narrow" for "strait and narrow"), but when "be who of" is being used instead of "behoove" in a newspaper, now that's just sad.
Posted by Dean at February 17, 2006 5:01 PM