Eggcorn?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 17 Oct 2005 17:13:21 -0700, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:

>On Oct 17, 2005, at 2:01 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> "Microsoft's position ... cast _dispersions_ on the fairness and
>> objectivity of a  ... state government's process."
>>
>> <http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5893208-4.html?tag=st.next> p.4
>
>more are to be found: ca. 629 raw google web pages.
>
>neither "aspersion" nor "dispersion" is particularly frequent, but
>the latter has the semantic advantage of having the negative prefix
>"dis-", so this is a candidate for eggcornhood.
>
>i would have suggested it was a blend, if i could have thought of a
>noun "dis-X" that would fit in the slot "cast dis-Xs on".  maybe
>others are cleverer than i am.

Disparagement?
(322 ghits for "cast disparagement", 214 for "cast disparagements".)

Or perhaps it's influenced by the verb "diss"...


--Ben Zimmer