eggcorns in oakland?

Marc Velasco marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM
Wed Oct 1 14:56:22 UTC 2008


for any curious who remain:

OED dates faction (n) to 1530; faction (v) to 1656; and factionalize (v) to
1970.  Fractionalize (like the math, with an 'r') appears in 1932.

Both faction and fraction have been used to refer to various groups arrayed
against each other.


**

faction (n)

*2.* A class, sort, or set of persons.

[image: {dag}]*a.* *gen.*
*1530* *Proper Dyaloge* (1863) 13 Dyuers facciones Of collegianes monkes and
chanones Haue spred this region ouer all.

**
faction (v)

*2.* *trans.* To form into factions. *1656* S.
H.<http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-h.html#s-h>
*Gold. Law* 35 They..divided and factioned the people to the Hazard and
Ruine of al.

**

*1970* *New Yorker* 14 Nov. 189/1 A party factionalized seemingly beyond
repair.


**

*1931* *Economist* 5 Sept. 420/2 Their report underlines even more
categorically..the disadvantages which result from the fractionalising of
the economic life of Europe.





On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 9:25 AM, Arnold M. Zwicky
<zwicky at csli.stanford.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: eggcorns in oakland?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sep 30, 2008, at 9:03 PM, Marc Velasco wrote:
>
> > "fractionalized" for factionalized... 2nd graph:
> >
> > In an unprecedented news conference,Oakland
> > Raiders<http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/clubhouse?team=oak> owner
> > Al Davis explained the firing of Lane Kiffin in great detail, and
> > the coach
> > later said he was "embarrassed to watch that."
> >
> > "I reached a point where I felt that the whole staff were
> > _fractionalized_,
> > that the best thing to do to get this thing back was to make a
> > change,"
> > Davis said during the lengthy news conference. "It hurts because I
> > picked
> > the guy. I picked the wrong guy."
>
> "fractionalize" 'divide into separate groups or parts' is in most
> dictionaries.
>
> arnold
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list