eggcorn versus malaprop

[Jonathan Lighter]

I believe that over the past decade or so I've heard "put your best face forward" far more often than "...foot..."

  Maybe a dozen times for "face" and once or twice for "foot."  Very roughly.

  Compare the slow but successful ascendency of "I could care less."

  JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: eggcorn versus malaprop
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At 6:29 PM -0500 2/1/06, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>Angie and I are renovating our kitchen and bathroom before inviting wedding
>guests over. The management company requires a $2,500 deposit, then a $400
>fee, and then there are the costs for a new toilet, bathroom sink,
>refrigerator,
> dishwasher, stove, kitchen cabinets... I said that I'm glad we'll soon be
>over with all this. She said:
>...
>"Don't count your eggs before they're hatched."
>
and by all means don't put all your chickens in one basket either
(she clucked).

Actually, one of these I've heard a lot is "water over the bridge" or
possibly even "water under the dam".

L

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