eggcorns: scrupleless and moribound

Gordon, Matthew J. GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU
Tue Sep 19 00:26:56 UTC 2006


scrupleless for scrupulous

Scrupleless is in OED though it's listed there as rare with only one 1823 citation. It seems like it should be a more common reanalysis, of course with the opposite meaning of scrupulous. Some examples:

"Consider yourself lucky, that I don't care enough to try and find each and everyone of you scrupleless scumbags."
http://www.halomods.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11364&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20&sid=de01ca1dfb27a6fbaf4cdc14043d5c0a

"Scrupleless businesses are more than willing to profit from this market"
http://www.jbs.org/node/876


Still, you might be thinking these come from a straightforward suffixing of '-less' to 'scruple' rather than a reinterpretation of '-lous.' The following examples of "unscrupleless" are better evidence that some eggcorning's going on here. NB: the meaning is clearly not "scrupleful".

"I say the quanity of unscrupleless amulance chasers makes them a plentiful bunch in Hell."
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=1379677

"Flooded with stories of financial ruin and unscrupleless dealings on the news, it is very easy to become wary of the financial system."
http://bobbybran.blogs.com/bobbys_world/2005/10/selfperpetuatin.html

"I guarantee my pups and wondered if someone unscrupleless could switch a pup to get their money back?"
http://www.prodoggroomingsupplies.com/dog-forums/showthread.php?t=14161



moribound for moribund

I just heard this one from Sen. Norm Coleman on the NewsHour.

It's also shown, e.g.:
"At any rate, the Anglican church is moribound. They're much more concerned about being up with current sociological fads then following the dictates of Bible they claim to be based on. As a result, they're losing members."
http://strategypage.com/militaryforums/36-19803.aspx

"John, I admit to being immersed within a moribound and entrenched bureaucracy."
http://www.coalitionoftheswilling.net/archives/2006/01/30_of_the_metha.html

"As many as half of the languages spoken worldwide are “moribound”, which means that the languages are only spoken by the elderly or adults who don't teach their native tongue to the new generations."
http://si.unm.edu/si2002/JGARCIA/TIMELINE/TIM_000D.HTM

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