Eggcorn: *mooted* > *muted*

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Tue Nov 6 23:00:37 UTC 2007


On Nov 6, 2007, at 1:30 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

> On 11/6/07, Damien Hall <halldj at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>> [Arnold:]
>>> added to the ecdb entry for moot > mute:
>>
>>>   http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/41/mute/
>>
>> Thanks for adding it to the Database!  But, clicking on the link
>> from there to
>> the original story, just out of curiosity, I find that someone at
>> MSN Sport has
>> noticed and changed it back, rather than glorying in the endlessly
>> creative
>> possibility of error, as they should have done.  Could you add a
>> note to that
>> effect, as well?  (To the effect that it was an eggcorn and has
>> been corrected,
>> not to the effect that they should embrace their copy-writers'
>> creativity.)
>
> For the moment, at least, the "muted" version is still on this page
> cached by Google:
>
> http://google.com/search?q=cache:www.skysports.com/story/
> 0,19528,12040_2839166,00.html
>
> And with somewhat more permanence here:
>
> http://sportnet2.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/fa-confirm-world-cup-bid/

in this situation, the best i can do is add a note:

   (On 2007-11-6, at least some of the copies of this story have been
corrected.)

arnold

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