Eggcorns and self-promotion

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Tue Aug 14 14:26:49 UTC 2007


On Aug 14, 2007, at 2:37 AM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

> My favorite in music is: "It's a hard egg.  Nuthin' but a hard
> egg."  (for
> "heart ache")

from what i can tell from googling, this would be bonnie tyler's song
"Heartache" *mis-heard* as "hard egg".  that is, it's a mondegreen,
not really an eggcorn.  it would be a puzzling eggcorn, since it's
hard to imagine how anyone could think that "hard egg" makes sense in
a way that "heartache" does not.

some eggcorns surely originate in mis-hearings, but their users think
they make sense.

arnold

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