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eggcorn (EG-kawrn) - n., a word or phrase that is a seemingly logical alteration of another word or phrase that sounds similar (in the speaker's dialect) and has been misheard or misinterpreted.
Common examples include wet one's appetite (instead of whet), for all intensive purposes (instead of intents and), and ex-patriot (instead of expatriate). A similar phenomenon to folk etymology, only on a more individual level. The name was coined by linguist Geoffrey Pullum in September 2003 in response to Language Log post by fellow linguist Mark Liberman about a woman who substituted egg corn for the word acorn, along with a complaint that the phenomenon lacked a name, to which Pullum suggested using eggcorn itself as a label.
---L.
Common examples include wet one's appetite (instead of whet), for all intensive purposes (instead of intents and), and ex-patriot (instead of expatriate). A similar phenomenon to folk etymology, only on a more individual level. The name was coined by linguist Geoffrey Pullum in September 2003 in response to Language Log post by fellow linguist Mark Liberman about a woman who substituted egg corn for the word acorn, along with a complaint that the phenomenon lacked a name, to which Pullum suggested using eggcorn itself as a label.
---L.
