Malapropism (?)

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Wed Nov 15 13:52:49 UTC 2006


On Nov 15, 2006, at 5:45 AM, Charlie Doyle wrote:

> This morning an NPR newscaster, in reference to the sentencing of
> another Enron executive, said that the felon "helped perpetuate
> fraud."  I assume he was misreading "perpetrate."  I think that
> mistake is rather common, but I somehow keep expecting more from
> those NPR high-brows!

several hundred google webhits for "perpetuate fraud", including many
from places that should have known better.

arnold

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