eggcorn "cudboard"

Doug Harris cats22 at STNY.RR.COM
Tue Aug 11 23:06:24 UTC 2009


the original note again:
Google reports 3000+ hits, but many of those are not cudboard
but CUD Board, sometimes referring to the Canadian University
of Dubai (of all things!).
I encountered it in the wild in a "freeecycle" listing from a woman
anxious to part with some cans of baked beans and tomatoes:
"cleaning out my cudboard, like 30 cans total. just have too much.
no name brands. must take all!"
dh

Prepared and sent with Chaos Software's Intellect mail client.
Intellect's contacts and appointments managers also are cool.

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Alison Murie" <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Received: 8/11/2009 6:59:37 PM
Subject: Re: eggcorn "cudboard"


>THe original of the following, sent earlier today, seems to have got
>lost in cyberspace:

>On Aug 11, 2009, at 2:30 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Eggcorn: "cudboard"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 10:48 AM -0700 8/11/09, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>> On Aug 11, 2009, at 8:30 AM, Doug Harris wrote:
>>>
>>>> Google reports 3000+ hits, but many of those are not cudboard
>>>> but CUD Board, sometimes referring to the Canadian University
>>>> of Dubai (of all things!).
>>>
>>> i don't get anywhere near that number of hits, but there certainly
>>> are
>>> some out there.
>>>
>>> but there a great many more hits for the ear-spelling "cuboard",
>>> and a
>>> fair number for the ear-spelling "cubboard".
>>
>> also a bunch for "cubbard" and for "cubberd", spellings I've used in
>> class when talking about loss of transparency with respect to this
>> word (vs. "clipboard")
>>
>> LH
>>
>>>
>>> i'm having trouble seeing "cudboard" as an actual eggcorn (what could
>>> cuds have to do with cupboards?).  maybe it's a demi-eggcorn: the
>>> writer realized that a consonant letter was needed to condition the
>>> lax vowel in the first syllable, and then cast about for existing
>>> one-
>>> syllable words with that vowel; "cub" would be the obvious choice,
>>> but
>>> "cud" is also possible (and [db] can be simplified to [b]).  the
>>> choice of "cub" or "cud" doesn't contribute any semantics, but at
>>> least the spelling has recognizable parts.
>>>
>>> arnold
>>>
>~~~~~~
>Then there is "clapboard," which some people pronounce as spelled, but
>most of us old farts, at least, pronounce "clabb at rd."
>AM

>------------------------------------------------------------
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