Post your linguistic pet peeves here.
I'll start with with the improper use of the third person plural personal pronoun "they" when the singular form is called for.
(See below for the correct pronoun to use in this case.)
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I've a couple more areas which to post about, but I thought I'd start with the one in which I think we'll all agree. I'm talking about the latest indication that our society is becoming grammatically ignorant: eggcorns.
Honestly, I thought that there would be a more technical term than "eggcorn", but it doesn't exactly fit the defintions of mondegreen or spoonerism or malapropism. The term eggcorn was coined by linguist Geoffrey Pullum in 2003, and it refers to misstatements of common expressions, phrases, or names/titles. I'm just going to provide the eggcorn in the examples, highlighted in boldface. You fellows are all smart enough to know the actual phrase.
First, some that I've actually seen written on line, two of them recently--and these two have me shaking my head over the collective intellect of the upcoming generations.
"The aroma from the restaurant really wetted his appetite."
"The book about a man from La Mancha who becomes a knight-errant and tilts at wildmills is called Donkey Hotey."
"Let's go down to New Orleans for Marty Graw ."
These I've seen written, but more often heard someone speak and with a straight face.
"He was in trouble from the gekko."
"It's a doggie-dog world."
"He couldn't be any farther away if he was in Ten-buck-two."
"He lost his bathing suit coming down the water slide and he landed in the pool butt naked."
"Being able to keep working was something he took for granite."
"For all intensive purposes, that was the right answer."
To be fair, some of them go back farther than the current generation. I was a young man when I heard some folks refer to returning to their old stomping ground, or they were eager to do something, so they were chomping at the bit. With regard to the latter one, last week I was watching a Bette Davis-Glenn Ford film from 1946, when Bette Davis' character said the phrase properly. It was so refreshing to hear that I wanted to kiss the television screen.
I'm sure all of you have heard these or others. I imagine there's a list of them somewhere on line, but the above ones are those I hear most often or strike me as the most embarassing for someone to say/write.
For years, when I was a kid, I thought "for all intensive purposes" was the right one., until I found out otherwise.
My problem with "To/For all intents and purposes" is that it's redundant. When I use the phrase, I say "To/For all intents".
Forego and forgo.
Forego means to go before. Forgo means to do without. Not interchangeable.
Excellent one, Cap. My guess is most folks don't even know about "forgo" as a separate spelling in addition to being a separate word.
Similarly, loath and loathe. Loath is an adjective meaning "not willing"; loathe is a verb meaning "to dislike intensely". As in your example, most people don't know that loath is a different word with a different spelling and a different meaning.
Bil Keane made a career out of eggcorns (I must remember that term) in Family Circus.
I read one just today in a People magazine in a doctor's waiting room. Cheryl Crow was being interviewed and she happened to mention something her son used to say when he was younger: "Hope springs a turtle."
When I was a teacher, one of my seventh graders omce told me, "It's a doggie-dog world, Mr. P." and I replied, "Yes, Shannon, it certainly is."
Not an eggcorn, but here's one I probably hear more than most of you (because my pharmacist says it every time I use the drive-thru): "I'll be with you momentarily."
"Momentarily" means for a moment, not in a moment," as in, "The lightning momentarily illuminated the sky."
"Momentarily" means for a moment, not in a moment," as in, "The lightning momentarily flashed in the sky."
Now, that's one I did not know. I don't recall using the word much, if at all, so it never occurred to me. But I'll certainly recall the actual meaning from now on.
Tip o' the hat, my friend.
I keep hearing people who are paid to report on TV saying "calvary" when they mean "cavalry." My basic training drill sergeants would say "CAV" enthusiastically.
If it bothers me it must drive them nuts.
I'm not even Army, and that one annoys me, too.
Maybe that confusion explains why John Wayne got the cameo as the centurion who says, "Truly that man was the son of God," in The Greatest Story Ever Told.
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