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Either it's just me or there's a spate of sniggering going on in web language circles lately about eggcorns and it has occurred to me that the language must be littered with what were originally eggcorns but have become standard accepted usage. The only one that comes to mind is Jerusalem artichoke but surely there are more. Can anyone think of any?
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would butterfly (vs. flutterby) count as one?
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>flutterby
folk etymology, at best.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English butterflye, from Old English butorfloge : butor, butere, butter; see butter + floge, fly; see fly2.
WORD HISTORY: Is a butterfly named for the color of its excrement or because it was thought to steal butter? It is hard to imagine that anyone ever noticed the color of butterfly excrement or believed the insect capable of such theft. The first suggestion rests on the fact that an early Dutch name for the butterfly was boterschijte. The second is based on an old belief that the butterfly was really a larcenous witch in disguise. [AHD4]
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>The only one that comes to mind is Jerusalem artichoke
‘The name of Jerusalem Artichoke is considered to be a corruption of the Italian Girasóle Articiocco or Sunflower Artichoke, under which name it is said to have been distributed from the Farnese garden at Rome, soon after its introduction to Europe in 1617.’ W. B. Booth in Treasury of Botany
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veteran
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Butterflies, my dear Mister tsuwm, gather around the clay banks of cool springs and creek banks. They seek the nutrients in the soil. Which happened to be same cool place that your less than cosmopolitan English-misspeaking ancestors kept their home-churned butter to keep it from spoiling.
Not trusting anyone they accused the pretty flies of stealing.
Today, you know better, but being a tsuwm, you still call them butter flies and your proof is in the yellow pudding that doesn't exist except in wild-eyed folklore and your dusty books.
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alley-oop, from French allez houp/hop?
-joe (Grand Wizer) friday
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Pooh-Bah
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dalehileman
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When a bitch (hey, think of the Weekly Theme, y'all!) gets "spaded"; or when a bee stings you and raises a "welp". Hey, look what I just found: UsingEnglish.com. I think it's worth adding to Max's references page.
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formerly known as etaoin...
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There are now 569 eggcorns in the database.
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Faldo asked about standard / accepted usage; are you saying you think "mute point" qualifies in that regard? -joe (shirley not) friday
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Thank you, tsuwm. Common accepted usage that was once "incorrect" is what I'm looking for. Another example that has occurred to me is "good-bye".
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