Wife's eggcorn

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nineteenth century ballad, "The Boston Burglar" (from memory) :

  You lads who have your liberty, protect it while you can :
  Don't never go _night-walking_, boys, or scorn the laws of man.
  For if you do, you're sure to rue and become a lad like me,
  Serving out your twenty-one years in the penitentiary.

  That's "Burglar," not "Male Prostitute."

  JL

Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Margaret Lee
Subject: Re: Wife's eggcorn
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is "night walker" the same as the common expression, "street walker" (prostitute)?

Margaret Lee

Wilson Gray wrote:
" But what elderly
gentleman wants to hear the language of a common night walker from the
lips of his dear wife?
-Wilson Gray




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