More semantic drift

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Fri Sep 22 17:25:54 UTC 2006


On Sep 22, 2006, at 9:33 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> My experience too, probably from t1977 when I first taught _Oedipus
> Rex_.
>
>
> Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Charles Doyle
> Subject: Re: More semantic drift
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> In our students' writing, "playwright" usually goes in the other
> direction; an author is a "playwrite" (like "barkeep" or
> "chimneysweep").

yes, and that one's in the ecdb:

   http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/146/playwrite/

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